Friday, April 27th - 7:00 P.M. - Bell Auditorium :

Saturday, April 28th - 12:30 P.M. - Oak Street Cinema :

Director: Corneliu Porumboiu

The film is centered around a television debate show on a small-town station taking place exactly 16 years after the collapse of dictator Nicolae Ceausecu's Communist regime, exactly at 12:08 p.m. on December 22, 1989.

Monday, April 23rd - 9:15 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Gregorio Rocha

This documentary recaps the lively story of silent-era pioneers Felix and Edmundo Padilla, the father-son duo who traveled the northern border of Mexico exhibiting films to the public during that era.

Saturday, April 21st - 5:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Jean-Luc Raynaud

"The advantage of aging is that we continue living intense passions, but we are now able to hold them before us and turn them around slowly in the light." -- Virginia Woolf 

French director Jean-Luc Raynaud’s film, The Art of Aging (L’Art de Vieillir) received the Award for Best Documentary at the 2006 Montreal Film Festival. “Two men and two women, between the ages of 77 and 90, mine the unexpected riches of old age. Theirs is a time of life in which platitudes and preconceived notions drop by the wayside, one by one.

Saturday, April 21st - 5:15pm Oak Street Cinema :

Sunday, April 29th - 1:00p.m. Bell Auditorium :

Director: Grigoris Karatinakis

Chariton Ulianov (Georges Corraface) has one great love: Life! His postition as School Master in a small provincial town on the island of Corfu gives him the opportunity to disseminate his own unique philosophy to the students that particapate in his greatest passion: the choir.

Monday, April 23rd - 7:00p.m. St. Anthony Main :

Friday, April 27th - 5:00p.m. Bell Auditorium :

Director: Hernan Gaffet

The first feature from the Argentine director and screenwriter Hernan Gaffet, Ciudad en celo, managed to obtain the perfect balance, between the complexity of a love triangle, friendship, a suicide, a magical and nostalgic neighborhood cafe in Buenos Aires and a stunning tango and jazz soundtrack.

View Trailer  

5:15 pm, Sun., Apr. 22, Oak St. Cinema

9:30 pm, Tues., Apr. 24, Bell Auditorium

2006 Turkey/France -- Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Winner of the prestigious Fipresci Award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Climates is internationally acclaimed writer-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s sublime follow-up to his Cannes multi-award winner Distant.

Sunday, April 22 - 5:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Allan King

EMPz 4 Life, a gripping documentary, records the street life of black youth in Toronto’s suburbs. This film presents a gritty yet ultimately compassionate understanding of young people who time and time again have been ostracized, particularly by the educational system.

Saturday, April 21st - 1:00 pm - Bell Auditorium

Sunday, April 22nd - 9:15 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Carlos Benpar

A follow-up to Filmmakers Against Tycoons, this film is a testimony to the manipulation and mutilation of films and to the producers battling to maintaining the integrity and respect of their works.

Sunday, April 22nd - 9:00pm - St. Anthony Main :

Sunday, April 29th - 3:30pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Chris Kraus

Four Minutes is a well-crafted film telling the story of two scarred women who fight with each other as they confront themselves to hang on to life. A long-time piano teacher at a local women’s prison, Traudel Kruger meets an unapproachable and violent young woman, Jenny von Loeben, recently-admitted to the facility.

Wednesday, April 25th - 5:15pm - Oak Street Cinema :

Thursday, April 26th - 9:15pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Pablo Larrain

Eliseo Montalbán is a musician trapped in an unfinished symphony. As a boy, he witnessed the violent death of his sister who was murdered on top of a piano while composing a melody.

Saturday, April 28th - 2:30pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director:  Jirí Vejdelek

A comedy based on the novel by the most popular contemporary Czech writer Michal Viewegh. A random group of tourists set off on a bus trip to the Adriatic. They consist of the sympathetic Jolana, her permanently quarrelling parents, charming old ladies, a gay couple and the skirt-chaser Max.

Monday, April 23rd - 7:00 pm - Bell Auditorium

Friday, April 27th - 4:45 pm - St. Anthony Main

Director: Nader T. Homayoun

Through a dazzling array of film clips and interviews this thoroughly encompassing documentary explores the history of one of the most highly regarded national cinemas to emerge in the last two decades.  Through a compelling blend of archival footage, excerpts from representative landmark Iranian films, and interviews with its filmmakers, film critics and film historians, the film traces its country’s cinema history in the face of often official opprobrium.

Saturday, April 28th - 7:00 pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn

Death of spirits or physical death? Banishment of ancient beliefs? Here we are witness to momentous events, the stuff of Shakespeare. The great shaman Avva and his beautiful daughter Apak (also gifted with spiritual powers) are estranged from their community (whose members have been converted to Christianity by missionaries).  

Sunday, April 22nd - 7:45 pm - Bell Auditorium

Wednesday, April 25th - 5:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director:  Alexander Wisting

This documentary about Henrik Ibsen follows the lion-maned dramatist through his whole life, from early shame about his father’s fall from grace because of bankruptcy, through bitterness over the conservative contemporary public life, to his later years as a national institution, whom tourists would flock to see on his way to his very punctual, daily lunch at the Grand Café in Oslo.

Saturday, April 28th - 7:00 pm - Oak Street Cinema :

Sunday, April 29th - 5:45 pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Yang Ya-zhou

Director Present

Young provincial woman Ni Qiu (“”loach”” in Chinese), recently divorced, decides to take her twin girls to Beijing in search of a better life. On the train she meets an older man who has the same name as her, a contract labourer who tries to charm her with stories of the big house he'll get for her.

Screening postponed! We hope to show this film during Best of the Fest.

Sunday, April 22nd - 5:15 pm - Oak Street Cinema

Tuesday, April 24th - 9:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Cem Yilmaz

In his latest film, the enormously popular Turkish comedian Cem Yilmaz plays the struggling magician Iskender. The only person who believes in him is his childhood friend Maradona (Tuna Orhan) and together they dream of a better life. They embark on a tour of Anatolia to escape the hustle and bustle of Istanbul’s streets, and to make as much money as possible.

Wednesday, April 25th - 9:15 pm - St. Anthony Main :

Saturday, April 28th - 1:00 pm - Bell Auditorium :

Sunday, April 29th - 11:00 pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Alexander Leclere

A wonderful French “kitchen sink” drama, a tale of two mis-matched sisters, perhaps more aptly described by its French title,  Les Soeurs Fâchées (The Angry Sisters)!  Growing up in a small town in the provinces, older sister Martine now lives in the Parisian upper middle class with snobbish friends and a boring husband.  Her younger sister,  Louise – natural and straightforward -- works as a beautician in a provincial town.   

Saturday, April 28th - 9:15 pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Gil Kofman

Director Present

This remarkable first feature from director Gil Kofman tells the tale of an aimless young man whose search for identity and meaning leads him to an obsession with survivors of the Holocaust. Mark Webber delivers a powerful and intense portrayal of Lukas, a hapless Los Angeles toll booth operator who spends his free time voyeuristically spying on the traffic at the toll plaza.

Monday, April 23rd - 5:00 pm - Bell Auditorium :

Director: Joel Palombo

Swaroop, a young Muslim boy from a caste of musicians, leaves his Rajasthani desert village in search of work with his Uncle Nizam. An innocent and curious 14 year-old boy, Swaroop’s world quickly expands as he and Nizam join up with Nizam’s musician friends who perform at roadside locations.  

Saturday, April 21st - 9:15 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Faisal Lutchmedial

Director Invited

As he journeys into his mother’s native country for the first time, director, writer, and producer Faisal Lutchmedial goes beyond the activist stereotype, wondering aloud whether ”globalization” does anything good for the workers behind the machines. A three month visit to Bangladesh becomes a discovery of family and home that runs parallel with his attempt to tackle the complex issue of global trade.

Saturday, April 21st - 7:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Aslak Aarhus

Director Invited

Ole Bull was Norway’s first superstar. His bath water was sold in perfume bottles to his fans, and he conquered the world while his children and wife were neglected. He was the violin king who seduced both women and his audience. His life was crazy and without limits, just like Bull himself. He was the great idol of his times, and a burning nationalist.

Friday, April 20th - 7:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Wednesday, April 25th - 9:15 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Petr Lom

Have you ever wanted to be a tightrope walker in the circus? Or wondered how such an art can be mastered? This beautifully-filmed documentary shows us a place in which this sometimes happens: an orphanage in Xinjiang Province, China, where Uyghur youngsters of the largest Muslim minority undergo rigorous training in this ancient art.

Friday, April 20th - 4:45 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Sophie Fiennes

Attention, All Perverts! And others as well!  Here is your guide to the movies, led by the charismatic Slavoj Zizek, the philosopher and psychoanalyst from a place called Slovenia (he taught at the U of MN in the nineties). In this delightful intellectual feast and exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made, Zizek passionately delves into the hidden language of the cinema to uncover what movies can tell us about ourselves.

Sunday, April 29th - 7:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Maurice Amaraggi

In his roots journey to Salonika, Maurice Amaraggi, 62, explores the port city that once was a thriving cosmopolitan Jewish center, until its Sephardic community was destroyed in the Holocaust. Today’s mix of new immigrants and buildings -– including a University, built over a Jewish cemetery of 10,000 graves – hides a rich and dark past. The Sephardic history of Salonika is so completely buried, that even the ghosts do not have anywhere to wander.

Saturday, April 21st - 3:15 pm - Bell Auditorium

Friday, April 27th - 9:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Naoko Ogigami

Sachie (Satomi Kobahyashi) runs Kamome Shokudo (aka "The Seagull Diner"), a streetcorner restaurant in Helsinki, Finland. She employes Midori (Hairi Katagiri) who just put her finger on the map and ended up in Finland by sheer luck and Masako (Masako Motai) recently stranded in Finland without her luggage . . .

Sunday, April 22nd - 9:30 pm - Oak Street Cinema

Tuesday, April 24th - 7:15 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Lionel Baier

Lionel lives the good life: a steady job with Swiss Radio, a handsome boyfriend and a totally supportive family. But still, something is missing. Tales of the American western frontier help him fill the void.

Tuesday, April 24th - 5:30 pm - Bell Auditorium

Director: Garine Torossian

Director Invited

Into the richy-layered culture of ancient and post-Soviet Armenia, a woman of the diaspora embarks on a journey of discovery, encountering the country for the first time, distilling the realities vs. what she has constructed over her lifetime about the place of her family and their ancestors. Woven into her narrative are the insights and poetic reflections of Canadian-Armenian actress Arsinée Khanjian as she confronts Armenia for the fourth time.