Indie Memphis 2008

Amy, the family matriarch, makes ends meet by running a small convenience store out of her home. But in a struggling economy customers are scarce, and without the help of her husband or pregnant daughter, she is forced to supplement the family income by collecting bets for an illegal numbers game. In this starkly realistic narrative, director Jeffrey Jeturian presents a captivating portrait of a once-proud woman, haunted by memories of a dead son and hounded by the police, and her fragile and lonely life as a kubrador (bet collector) on the streets of Manila. About the Director: Jeffrey Jeturian was born in Manila, Philippines in 1959. He studied Broadcast Communication at the University of the Philippines. After college, he held various positions within the film industry for fifteen years before making his first feature film, Enter Love (1998). His second feature film, Fetch A Pail Of Water (1999), about slum dwellers and their struggle for survival, won the NETPAC Jury Award at the 1st CineManila International Film Festival (Philippines) and a Gold Award at the 2000 Worldfest International Film Festival (USA). His third feature film, Larger Than Life (2000), a satirical take on the state of filmmaking in the Philippines, was an official selection for competition in the Cinema Of the Present program of the 2001 Venice International Film Festival (Italy) and won a Gold Award at the 2002 Worldfest International Film Festival (USA). Jeturian's other previous feature films include Bridal Shower (2004), One Moment More (2004), and Bikini Open (2005). The Bet Collector is his seventh feature film. Global Lens is sponsored by Dorothy Kirsch.

What would you do if your girlfriend sold everything and decided to move while you were in jail? Levi is about to find out what that's like -- the hard way.

TENNESSEE PREMIERE Recent studies are suggesting that bisexuality is drastically more widespread than is reported in census counts. The iron curtain between gay and straight is crumbling. The Bible belt is being unbuckled. And for young people, dating a girl one week and a guy the next is no big deal. Journeying through the changing sexual landscape of America, the directors of BI THE WAY investigate the latest scientific reports and social opinions on bisexuality, while following five members of the emerging “whatever generation” – teens and twenty-somethings who seem to be ushering in whole new sexual revolution.

The traditional definition of the phrase 'blacklist' has been rendered obsolete by the documentary THE BLACK LIST, which seeks to bury the negative weight of the term by allowing African-Americans to provide an up-to-the-minute answer to the grim origins of 'blacklist.' In a film that works as series of living portraits, twenty prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country and manage to re-define 'blacklist' for a new century in the process. The film is presented as a series of vignettes -- a kind of living portraiture -- in which the subjects address the camera directly as they tell their stories. The film was directed by the renowned portrait photographer and filmmaker, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, from a series of interviews conducted by Elvis Mitchell. Mitchell is never seen on camera or heard, thus allowing the subjects' own voices to remain the focus. The actual title of the film itself, THE BLACK LIST was conceived of by Mitchell as an answer to the constant taint applied to the word 'black' in Western culture. Those interviewed for the film come from a vast and different collection of disciplines that draw from the worlds of the arts, sports, politics; the group assembled features luminaries such as Toni Morrison, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Vernon Jordan, Chris Rock, Richard D. Parsons, Zane and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Their tales of their lives begin with the personal, and move into an area of larger social repercussion, as the weight of their accomplishment on this country and world come into focus. THE BLACK LIST is more than an enumeration of obstacles overcome -- it's a singular view of America from a type of insight and perspective rarely seen on screen in a way that emphasizes the elegance and determination of the subjects. Director's Bio: As a photographer, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is highly regarded for his strikingly intimate portraits of world leaders and major cultural figures. As a filmmaker, he is best known for his documentary about the legendary musician, Lou Reed.Greenfield-Sanders' film career started in the mid-1970's when he attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. It was at AFI that he fell in love with portraiture while taking photographs for the school of visiting dignitaries including Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis and Ingmar Bergman. Greenfield-Sanders got lighting and posing tips from the masters and after receiving his MFA degree, switched to portraiture full time.Greenfield-Sanders moved back to NYC where he started to photograph the art world (his undergraduate degree from Columbia University was in Art History). In 1999, twenty years later, Greenfield-Sanders exhibited 700 portraits of artists, dealers, critics, collectors and curators. Full sets of all 700 of these images are now in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In the mid-1990's Greenfield-Sanders returned to filmmaking with his first film, "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart". He produced and directed this feature for PBS' American Masters Series. The film premiered in the U.S. at Sundance and in Europe at The Berlin Film Festival. The film won a 1998 Grammy Award.In 2004, Greenfield-Sanders produced and directed "Thinking XXX" for HBO, a documentary based on the making of his best-selling book, 'XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits'.To date, fifteen books and catalogues have been published on Greenfield-Sanders' portraiture, including a monograph in 2001 and most recently, 'Movie Stars', a collection of portraits of actors and film directors.Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is a contributing photographer at Vanity Fair. In 2005, he was profiled on the American television show "60 Minutes".

Four teenagers on the verge of adulthood wander into the woods on a summer afternoon and uncover a mystery that has been hidden for many years. Along the way, they are forced to examine their own lives and what they intend to do with them, as well as face the realities of death, and the impressions that one leaves behind.

In director John Barker's debut feature, up-and-coming comedians Kags, Joey and Dave make clear that life in the ‘new’ Johannesburg is not just about hardship and townships. It's also about finding humor in relationships, hanging out with friends and celebrating life on a raucous roadtrip to Oppi Koppi—South Africa's largest music festival. Shot in a cinema vérité style and using the street food ‘bunny chow’ as a metaphor for contemporary Johannesburg's mix of races, cultures and attitudes, Barker's edgy, urban comedy asks us to envision a nation through the eyes of its future, rather than the tragedy of its past. About the Director: John Barker was born in Durban, South Africa. He studied graphic design at ML Sultan in Durban. After working as a graphic designer in Cape Town, he made a change in career paths and began working in the film industry. He has directed various productions, such as the sketch comedy show, The Pure Monate Show, the South African Music Awards, and South Africa's first mockumentary, Blu Cheez (2002). Bunny Chow is his first feature film. Global Lens is sponsored by Dorothy Kirsch.

MEMPHIS PREMIERE In the mountain resort of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, 73 rabbits are found slaughtered at a miniature golf course. Nearby, a small rental cabin catches fire, killing its only occupant. Connecting these two events is amateur archaeologist Johnny Tesar, the self-proclaimed “last Indian on the Trail of Tears.” Johnny claims to have discovered an ancient civilization, and has collected thousands of stone artifacts to support this assertion. His bizarre scientific theories have generated controversy for decades, and the relics themselves continue to attract skeptical curiosity seekers. But in Johnny’s microcosm of friends and enemies, it is even more difficult to discern all the facts of legal battles, spiritual alliances, and unexplained deaths.

If dread Cthulhu wants a role in Joseph Nanni’s short, he’ll have to line up and audition like everyone else. CASTING CALL OF CTHULHU takes us behind the scenes of a horror movie where an exasperated director auditions would-be monsters for his next film.