Click here to View PDF of Ace 2.19.2009 print edition
Watch This
One World Film Festival delivers diversity
For everyone who said “what Lexington needs is a
Film Festival,” the answer came in 1998 when the
non-profit One World Films was created in Lexington.
Since then, they’ve been showing movies that you’d often
be lucky to find on DVD or Sundance, much less at a theatre.
You probably remember reading the great reviews of
Under the Same Moon, for example — a feature film telling
the story of one nine year-old boy living in Mexico with his
grandmother, who sets out for the U.S. to find his mother —
but you never had a chance to see it. You might’ve loved
Pete Seeger’s performance inauguration weekend, but you
probably haven’t seen the documentary of his life, Power of
Song (it plays this Thursday at the Kentucky).
And when you watch the Oscars this Sunday — even if
it’s only to root for Lexington native Michael Shannon —
you probably won’t be familiar with most of the documentary
nominees, like War Dance (which plays at the Library,
March 1). And you might know Slumdog Millionaire, but you
probably never heard of Amal. Now you can see them too.
The mission of One World Films is to increase awareness
of issues particularly those of culture, race, ethnicity,
sexual orientation and gender that challenge the increasingly
diverse population of Lexington and the Bluegrass area.
Discussions follow the films.
Pete Seeger: Power of Song
Thursday Feb. 19, 7pm, Kentucky Theatre
With songs, stories, interviews, and film clips, the film chronicles the
major humanitarian and ecological causes of the 20th century, through
which the lives of Pete Seeger, his family, and friends are woven.
Reception following film sponsored by Woodsongs Volunteers
Moving Midway
Sunday Feb. 22, 2pm, Lexington Public Library Theater
This film is … well, nothing like what happened when the
Dame moved from one end of Main to the other. When commercial
development and a busy highway begin to encroach on Midway
Plantation, a beautiful antebellum house near Raleigh, NC, the
owner decides to physically relocate the whole plantation.
Godfrey Cheshire — a former film critic and cousin to Midway
Plantation’s owner — documents the move.
Alicestyne Adams, Director, Underground Railroad Research
Institute, Georgetown College, will lead an audience participation
conversation following the film. Reception following film sponsored
by the Human Rights Commission
A Walk To Beautiful
English & Amharic with Subtitles (53 min.)
Thursday Feb. 26, 5pm and 7:30pm, Kentucky Theatre
This documentary is the story of three Ethiopian women,
rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities.
Socially and physically stigmatized, they leave their homes in
search of medical treatment for obstetric fistula, a condition
caused by obstructed labor during childbirth.
Reception following film sponsored by The Muslim Women’s
Council of Kentucky
War Dance
Sunday Mar. 1, 2pm and 4:30pm, Lexington Public Library Theater
2008 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature
Set in civil-war torn Northern Uganda, this film follows the
lives of youngsters who attend school in a refugee camp and
momentarily forget their struggles on their trip to their nation’s
capital to participate in a prestigious music festival.
Reception following film sponsored by The International
Hospitality Program, University of Kentucky
Outsourced
Sunday Mar. 8, 2pm and 4:30pm, Lexington Public Library Theater
Romantic comedy overlays a sharp satire that shows the
human side of the frustrations brought about by today’s “global
economy.” A sales manager in Seattle, whose department is being
outsourced to India, is sent to Mumbai to train his successor and
in the process learns about globalization.
Arranged
Thursday Mar. 12, 5pm and 7:30pm, Kentucky Theatre
This film explores the world of orthodox religion (Islam and
Judaism), the practices of arranged marriage, and the evolving
friendship between two young women.
Reception following film sponsored by The Central Kentucky
Council for Peace and Justice
Up the Yangtze
Yung Chang, Director
Mandarin with English Subtitles (109 min.)
Thursday, Mar. 5, 5pm and 7:30pm, Kentucky Theatre
Up The Yangtze had its U.S. premiere at the 2008 Sundance
Film Festival. It portrays a farewell cruise up the Yangtze River in
China, where the enormous Three Gorges Dam is under construction.
Aboard the luxury cruise ship are prosperous Westerners
waiting to catch a last glimpse of the classic river landscape
before it is inundated by the dam’s rising waters.
Under the Same Moon
Spanish with English Subtitles (109 min.)
Sunday Mar. 15, 2pm, Lexington Public Library Theater
A full-length feature, Under the Same Moon shows the painful
dilemma of Mexican “illegals” living and working clandestinely in
the U.S. and the loved ones they are supporting back home. The
film tells the story of a nine-year old boy living in Mexico with his
grandmother, who sets out to find his mother in the US.
Amal
Hindi with English Subtitles (101 min.)
Thursday Mar. 19, 5pm and 7:30pm, Kentucky Theatre
A multi-layered portrait of contemporary India, this feature film
was shot in New Delhi and takes the form of a modern-day fable.
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
Portuguese with English Subtitles (105 min.)
Sunday Mar. 22, 2pm, Lexington Public Library Theater
In 1970s Brazil, young soccer fan Mauro is whisked from
home and sent to live with his grandfather in the Sao Paulo
Jewish ghetto. Mauro thinks his parents have gone on vacation,
but they’re escaping Brazil’s political unrest.
Reception following film sponsored by Hadassah, Jewish
Women’s Organization. ■
