Artists' Television Access

Big Cities Short Stories (second screening)

MadCat Film Festival

Thursday, January 1, 1970, 12:00 am, $7

Take a peek into the lives of a host of characters in this series of shorts set in Australia, Bosnia, Vietnam, Lebanon, Africa, the US and more. These funny, heart wrenching and touching films are meticulously crafted portraits of people both real and fictional.

Local maker Thanh Diep uses animation to explore her experiences as a Vietnamese-American woman living with Cerebral Palsy in Thanh. Caroline Leaf’s Academy Award nominated film The Street, follows a young boy as he waits impatiently for his grandmother to die so he can get his bedroom back. Leaf painted directly onto glass to create a somber yet humorous story of life and death. Suit Yourself by Mandy Ord is a darkly comic portrait of the fictional character Raymond. With his edible suits and “everyman” face masks Raymond tries his best to fit in. If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now Diane Bonder uses text “ripped from the headlines” of a small town newspaper in Western Massachusetts to reveal a battle over public versus private space. Incorporating documentary strategies and landscape photography, this humorously insightful film tells a story of this struggle land use, property and ownership. Riva (N. CA Premiere) by Tamara Tracz is a hand processed portrait of one woman’s tumultuous life. As a Communist Jew Riva was forced to flee Palestine to escape persecution and torture. Riva moved on to Serbia where she had a family and began to write children’s books. Now, at age 90, she has returned to where she began, to the country that has become Israel. Throughout her life the spunky Riva maintains her political fervor and her interest in education. Finally, The United Dondi’s by Joann Berman uses animation to take a look at Puerto Rican communities in New York City.

For more info,
MadCat Film Festival
www.somaglow.com/madcat
415 436-9523


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