Just
before press time, RIIFF Executive
Director
George T. Marshall unveiled
programming
for the 2005 Rhode Island
International
Film Festival, its ninth annual
event.
The Festival, based at the Columbus
Theatre
Arts Center, the historic
Providence
movie palace on Broadway, runs
Tuesday,August
9 through Sunday August 14
and
will screen titles from around the
world
at venues throughout the Ocean
State.
More than 250 films from 62
countries
(including 45 world premieres)
will
be presented along with forums, classes,
competitions
and VIP events.
 |
| Vincent A. Cianci as seen in the premiere of BUDDY, a documentary about the former Mayor of Providence. Directed by Cherry Arnold with narration by James Woods. |
While
international in scope, the Festival
will
feature the World Premiere of a
documentary
that cuts very close to home:
BUDDY,
the eagerly anticipated
documentary
about the former Providence
Mayor
and perennially controversial figure,
Vincent
A.“Buddy” Cianci, directed by
Providence
filmmaker, Cherry Arnold.
As
in years past, RIIFF continues to be a
Mecca
for filmmakers.This year’s guests
include
award recipients Danny Trejo
(ONCE
UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, SPY
KIDS,
CON AIR, HEAT), who will receive
the
Festival’s first-ever Humanitarian Award
and
Michael Showalter (star, writer and
producer
of the cult favorite WET HOT
AMERICAN
SUMMER), who screens his
directorial
debut THE BAXTER and
receives
the Crystal Image Award. Other
guests
include actor Stephen Collins
(SEVENTH
HEAVEN) who presents NEXT
OF
KIN, the world premiere of his first
directorial
effort; actor and former Trinity
Rep
Artistic Director Richard Jenkins (“Six
Feet
Under”), the country singer Billy
Gilman
(who will debut his new musical
short,
HEY LITTLE SUZIE,Academy Award
winning
actor/writer Ernest Thompson (ON
GOLDEN
POND) and John Fiore and
other
cast members of “The Sopranos”
who
star in JOHNNY SLADE’S GREATEST
HITS,
another Festival World Premiere.
They
join the company of such past RIIFF
guests
as Julie Andrews, Patricia Neal, Steve
Buscemi,
Seymour Cassel, Bobby and Peter
Farrelly,Andrew
McCarthy, Jon Cryer, Ben
Stiller,
Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.
This
year’s Creative Vision Award will be
given
to German filmmaker Rosa Von
Praunheim.
A special selection of his work
will
be presented in collaboration with the
Goethe
Institut-Boston.
Executive
Director Marshall states:“This
year
we are pleased to be presenting a
brave,
risk-taking slate of films. Thanks to
Programming
Director Lori Donnelly, RIIFF
will
showcase an eclectic, yet balanced
assortment.We
are both gratified and
buoyed
by the quality and quantity of
submissions
received from throughout the
world.
I am particularly excited that we will
continue
to celebrate the art of the short
film
with an opening-night selection of
some
great shorts followed by a fantastic
opening-night
party at the Villa Toscano on
Federal
Hill.”
 |
| RIIFF is expecting a large audience turnout for the world premiere of the knock out Stu Pollard (NICE GUYS SLEEP ALONE) directed film, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE starring Stacy Keach pictured here and Gil Bellows.
Photo courtesy RIFF. |
RIIFF
is one of only 47 qualifying festivals
worldwide
for the Academy of Motion
Picture
Arts and Sciences in the Short film
Category.
Several films screened at RIIFF
have
gone on to be nominated and in some
cases
win an Academy Award, including THE
PERSONALS
by Keiko Ibi (1999);
GREGOR’S
GREATEST INVENTION by
Johannes
Kiefer (2001); DESTINO from
Disney
Feature Animation (2003), and
SISTER
ROSE’S PASSION by Oren Jacoby
(2004);
FAMILY VALUES, by Eva Saks, was
nominated
and won a Student Academy
Award
in 2001.
According
to Lori Donnelly, RIIFF’s
Programming
Director:“This year’s films
have
been especially exceptional and
diverse.
We have an incredible lineup of
documentaries,
features, and shorts–RIIFF is
now
known for its amazing offering of short
films
and this year we do not disappoint.
The
lineup is strong. From animation to
drama
to experimental there is something
here
for every film lover.”
Each
year the festival attracts more than
20,000
filmmakers, audience members,
celebrities
and members of the industry. In
Providence
screenings will be held
throughout
the week at the Columbus
Theatre
Arts Center, the Cable Car Cinema
and
Providence Chamber of Commerce
Theatre.
In other parts of the state, films
will
be shown at venues in Westerly,
Kingston,
Newport, and Cranston. RIIFF is
the
only festival in the United States that
can
boast of being truly statewide.
Some
highlights of the Festival include the
Premieres
of:
CHAMPION,
directed by Joe Eckardt,
chronicles
the tumultuous and ultimately
uplifting
life of RIIFF Humanitarian Awardrecipient
Danny
Trejo and features
interviews
with Val Kilmer, Dennis Hopper,
Steve
Buscemi and Robert Rodriguez .
KEEP
YOUR DISTANCE, directed by Stu
Pollard,
stars Gil Bellows (“Ally McBeal”) as
a
talk show host whose perfect life crumbles.Veteran
Stacy Keach and Jennifer
Westfeldt
(KISSING JESSICA STEIN) co-star.
HOLY
WATER GATE. Mary Healey-Conlon’s
timely and provocative
documentary
about the sexual abuse
scandal
in the Catholic Church will be
followed
by a panel discussion with
survivors
of abuse (including members of
the
clergy). All box office proceeds to be
dedicated
to the fund for sexual abuse
survivors.
THE
BAXTER, a debut feature directed by
Michael
Showalter (this year’s recipient of
the
Crystal Image Award) stars Mr.
Showalter,
Elizabeth Banks, Michelle
top
Vincent A.
Cianci as seen in the premiere of BUDDY, a documentary
about the former Mayor of Providence.
Directed
by Cherry Arnold with narration by James Woods.
Williams,
Peter Dinklage and Paul Rudd is a
comedy
about the travails of a young man
two
weeks away from his wedding.
 |
| In 1985, in a secret tree house, two children disguised in animal costumes experiment to revive a bee.
Directed by John Williams, this will be a world premiere for this U.K. film. |
BUDDY,
a documentary about former
Mayor Cianci, directed by Cherry Arnold.
NEXT
OF KIN, the directorial debut of
actor
Stephen Collins, is a topical and hardhitting
drama
about a family’s reaction to
the
news that their daughter, a soldier, has
been
killed in Iraq.
FAVELA
RISING, an American documentary
in
Portuguese about a man who emerged
from
the slums of Rio and lead the
nonviolent
cultural movement known as
Afro-reggae.
A
MESSAGE FROM FALLUJAH, from
Australia,
is a short inspired by the current
kidnappings
in Iraq directed by Richard
Gibson
and starring Lance Henricksen
(ALIENS)
as an ill-fated American.
BRIDE
OF SILENCE, from Vietnam, is a
sweeping
historic epic set in Northern
Vietnam
two hundred years ago.
The
Festival’s closing night attraction will be
THE
BLACK PIRATE, a silent feature made
in
1926 and starring Douglas Fairbanks. It is
a
fitting program for the Columbus, which
opened
its doors that very year and will be
accompanied
live by an original score
composed
and performed by the noted
Alloy
Orchestra. Preceding the silent
classic
will be the presentation of restored
fragments
of MY LADY OF THE LILACS, a
recently
rediscovered silent film made in
Rhode
Island in 1916 and written by
pioneering
female screenwriter Beta Breuil.
Along
with general programming, thematic festivals
within the Festival include:
•
KidsEye™–including morning screenings of
films created this summer at RIIFF’s summer
filmmaking camp, KidsEye.
• The
Providence Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
• Jubile
Franco Americain–films from France
and Canada
• The
Providence Film Festival with its local filmmaker
focus
• East
West Crosswinds: Exploring Asian Culture
Thru Cinema
• World
Panorama–an international-film focus
• The
Providence Jewish Film Festival
• The
New England Student Film Festival
• Film,
Music and Musicians looks at the work
and lives of Ned Rorem, Graham Parsons
and Bernie Worrel (presented in conjunction
with the Newport Jazz Festival).
RIIFF
Honorary Co-chairs are Governor Donald
Carceiri, Providence Mayor David M.
Cicilline, and US Senator Jack Reed. RIIFF is
sponsored in part by SONY, Rule Broadcast
Systems, Clear Channel Communications,
the Goethe Institute-Boston, Delta Airlines,Amtrak,
RISCA, and NBC10,
the City of Providence, the Providence
Tourism Council, the Providence Phoenix,
the Federal Hill Gazette, Motif, the Feinstein
IMAX, Federal Hill Merchants Association,
Newport Storm, RIPTA, Dolce Villa
Hotel, Hotel Viking, Damron, and Jenn Lee
Designs and Amoeba Graphics.
