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And the winner is: the documentary
A documentary film festival at Pasco-Hernando Community College highlights awarding-winning works from Berlin to Canada and beyond.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 17, 2002
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Twenty documentary films from the United States, Canada and Australia, including winners of the 2001 Berlin Film Festival, will be shown at the first Florida Documentary Film Festival this weekend at Pasco-Hernando Community College in New Port Richey.
The festival is the brainchild of Karen Davis, an associate professor at PHCC. Films will be shown from 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the college's Performing Arts Center and a nearby classroom.
Highlighting the event is the Florida premiere of Blossoms of Fire, a 74-minute documentary about Mexico's indigenous Zapotec society, where women dominate the home and businesses and foster the area's progressive politics. The movie's co-director, Maureen Gosling, will lead a discussion after the screening at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Sandi Simcha DuBowski's Trembling Before G-d features the stories of gay and lesbian Hasidic and Orthodox Jews trying to reconcile their love of Judaism with religious prohibitions of homosexuality. The 84-minute film won the 2001 Berlin Film Festival's Teddy Award for best documentary. It will be shown at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Stephanie Black's 86-minute Life and Debt, winner of the 2002 Prague Human Rights Film Festival Audience Award, examines how globalization and free trade policies devastated the lives of Jamaicans. The film will be shown at 8 p.m. Sunday.
The other films are 13 to 58 minutes long. Details are on the festival's Web site, fldocfest.com. Helping to organize the event is PHCC alumnus Ed Isin, a graduate student at the University of South Florida and a documentary filmmaker.
"We're hoping to do this every year," Davis said, "especially if we can get a grant of some kind."
Florida Documentary Film Festival schedule
Pasco-Hernando Community College is at 10230 Ridge Road, New Port Richey. Admission is free; times are approximate.
SATURDAY, Performing Arts Center: 3 p.m. Trembling before G-d; Life Shelter, 16 min., quandaries of a no-kill animal shelter; 5 p.m. The Great Cheesesteak Debate, 13 min., opinions from the streets of Philadelphia; El Corazon de Cuba, 10 min.; Gift of the Game, 57 min., retired ballplayers teaching kids in Cuba; The Last Breadbox, 54 min., Chinese cab drivers in Bejing (with subtitles); Bike Like You Mean It, 46 min., bike activists in Austin, Texas; 8 p.m. Blossoms of Fire, followed by director's remarks.
Alternate stage, building M, room 101: 5 p.m. Viewing Habits, 27 min., kids getting a Hollywood sex education; Israel Rocks, 55 min., protest musicians in Israel; Fool's Gold, 55 min., what happened to the American Indians who escaped the Trail of Tears; Welcome. A Docu-Journey of Impressions, 13 min., sensuous journey through Tijuana.
SUNDAY, Florida Films, Performing Arts Center: 3 p.m. Reggie Me, Friend not Friend, 58 min., African-American homosexuals; Legend of the Ocoee Massacre, 27 min., lynching of a black man who tried to vote in 1920; No Room to Move, 27 min, plight of black bears in northern Florida; 6 p.m. Florida Filmmakers Forum, directors question and answer session followed by The Subway Line, 14 min., an artist paints while riding the subway; 6 p.m. S.P.I.T. Squeegee Punks in Traffic, 77 min., Montreal street kids living by their wits; Down to Earth, 52 min., environmental activists; 8:30 p.m. Life and Debt.
Alternate stage, M-101: 3 p.m. The Highwaymen, 42 min., memories and work by Florida's black roadside artists; Cowmen, 13 min., Florida ranchers; Seasoned Veteran, Journey of a Winter Soldier, 41 min., Vietnam veteran against the war; 6 p.m. Breezewood, Pa., 81 min., truck drivers and travelers on the American road.
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