ALMA MATER
USA, 2002, 80 MIN, DIRECTED BY
HANS CANOSA
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Sunday, March 9, 7:30 PM at Park 3
Thursday, March 13, 4:00 PM at Park 3
With meticulously beautiful art direction, director Hans Canosa recreates 1963 Cambridge in his finely detailed debut feature, shot on location at Harvard. Aging professor Arthur Knight's (William Lyman) only claim to fame is being President Kennedy's freshmen-year roommate. After he's denied tenure his world begins to crumble, made worse when his wife Gwen (Cady McClain) suspects he is having an affair with a pretty student, Molly. All the while Molly and her classmates are grappling with their own problems. Lyman and McClain give outstanding performances in this Austin Film Festival Audience Award winner. Alma Mater engagingly weaves the lives of Arthur, his wife, and his students as they struggle with the social politics of a country on the brink of change. As each individual story unfolds, we move forward with unfaltering pace and tone, hesitantly pulled toward that moment in history when time itself seemed to skip a beat.

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BALL IN THE HOUSE
USA, 2002, 98 MIN, DIRECTED BY
TANYA WEXLER
Monday, March 10, 7:00 PM at Park 2
Tuesday, March 11, 9:15 PM at Park 3
Thursday, March 13, 9:30 PM at Loews
Today is the "Welcome Home" party for seventeen-year-old JJ White. He's coming home from rehab to pick up the pieces. Unfortunately, his loved ones are betting he'll be dead before he hits eighteen. Following her feature film debut, Finding North, director Tanya Wexler has concocted a deviously funny dark comedy with a twist of noir. Ball in the House stars Jonathan Tucker (The Deep End, The Virgin Suicides) as JJ, a young man trying to stay clean after six months of court-ordered rehab. Through his freshly sobered eyes, it seems his dysfunctional family and friends are all against him--and maybe they are. His coarse stepfather Bull (Dan Moran) has taken out a life insurance policy on him and his sexy Aunt Dot (Jennifer Tilly, Bullets Over Broadway) is constantly tempting him. Perhaps only his counselor, Dr. Charlie (David Strathairn, Eight Men Out), can steer him through this dangerous road of sobriety. Inspired by the real life events of screenwriter Matthew Swan, JJ's struggles are at times absurdly comical and tragically real. Ball in the House, with its great cast, large doses of gallows humor, and outrageous characters, is a pitch black comedy of the highest order.

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CONEY ISLAND BABY
USA/IRELAND, 2002, 94 MIN, DIRECTED BY AMY HOBBY
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Saturday, March 8, 2:30 PM at Park 3
Wednesday, March 12, 9:30 PM at Enzian
Saturday, March 15, 7:00 PM at Loews
In her feature film directorial debut Amy Hobby, producer of Secretary and Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, has created a truly charming and funny film about love and missed opportunities. Billy Hayes (Karl Geary) returns to his hometown in Ireland from New York with hardly a quid to his name. His hopes of rekindling a relationship with Bridget (Laura Fraser) seem thwarted when he discovers that she is not only engaged--but pregnant. Whether he's working for his miserable dad (Tom Hickey) selling toilet accessories or trying to stay out of the troubles he thought he had left behind, Billy uses his resourcefulness and persistence in hopes of winning back Bridget and starting a new life. Written by lead Karl Geary and inspired by this Ireland native's own life experiences, Hobby's digitally-shot feature delightfully captures small town Ireland with the collaboration of cinematographer Peter Deming (Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway).

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THE DOGWALKER
USA, 2002, 99 MIN, DIRECTED BY
JACQUES THELEMAQUE
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Sunday, March 9, 9:30 PM at Park 2
Wednesday, March 12, 2:00 PM at Enzian
Have you ever wondered, "Are dogs ever happy? Are they ever at peace? Or do they just keep moving? Outrunning the bad memories. Sniffing out crumbs of joy wherever they can." Evidently director-writer Jacques Thelemaque has entertained such thoughts. In The Dogwalker, he offers us some great canine characters, often equating dog and human behavior. A terrific and sensitive look at life on the edge, the story concerns Ellie (Diane Gaidry), who flees an abusive relationship and finds herself in dire straits. Meeting a professional dogwalker Betsy (Pamela Gordon), she's offered temporary work, learning not only the code of the dogwalker but how to live again. Both women are damaged souls, and the director reveals their commonality gradually. Much of the power is not in what is said, but what happens between them. It's a riveting exploration of a beautiful and unique relationship between two uncommon women with outstanding performances by Gaidry and Gordon. Dog-lover or not, sniff it out.

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EVENHAND
USA, 2002, 93 MIN, DIRECTED BY
JOSEPH PIERSON
EAST COAST PREMIERE/2ND US SHOWING
Saturday, March 8, 4:00 PM at Enzian
Tuesday, March 11, 7:00 PM at Park 3
TV's Cops gave screenwriter Mike Jones the idea for EvenHand, but this police drama avoids sensationalism, created from a naturalistic, social-realist perspective. Director Joseph Pierson takes us into part of dirt-poor fictional town San Lovisa, Texas (much like shooting location San Antonio) and into the routine of new partners, Ted Morning (Bill Sage) and Rob Francis (Bill Dawes). Very different as people and in their approaches to the job, the officers struggle to get through the day. Nice guy Francis is contrasted with the aggressive, not quite by-the-book, patrol car cowboy Morning. "You want to help people? You arrest them. You're a cop; that's what you do," explains Morning. But neither characters nor situations are black and white. No car chases, shoot-outs, or big explosions here; the strength of this movie is making the day-to-day grind of cop life real to us by exploring the relationship between the partners, and between the cops and various perpetrators. Cinematographer Tim Orr (George Washington) vividly captures the numbing routine and the drama of their lives on the force.

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NEVER GET OUTTA THE BOAT
USA, 2002, 111 MIN, DIRECTED BY
PAUL QUINN
US PREMIERE
Saturday, March 8, 9:45 PM at Park 2
Friday, March 14, 3:30 PM at Enzian
"When was the last time you talked to a woman sober, because I was 12," admits one recovering addict to another in Paul Quinn's (This is My Father) uncompromising look at addiction and recovery. The title comes from Apocalypse Now: "Never get outta the boat. There's tigers out there." The boat, in this case, is the rehab house inhabited by three addicts (Darren Burrows, Nick Gillie, and Lombardo Boyar) determined to recover. Attempting to deal with their own demons, they and their counselor (Harry J. Lennix) watch a stream of humanity (including William Sanderson) pass through. Each of the trio attempts to cope differently: through sexual prowess, indiscriminate rage, or silence. Their lives and futures, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, matter. You'll watch both mesmerized and agonized. Credit the strong ensemble cast (many from the New Crime Productions theatre company, where Quinn and co-producer John Cusack are involved) and powerful script by Gillie, hard-hitting, raw, and honest. Robert Benavides's adventurous digital lensing and a terrific musical score add to the emotional punch.

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ROBOT STORIES
USA, 2002, 85 MIN, DIRECTED BY GREG PAK
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Saturday, March 8, 7:15 PM at Park 3
Friday, March 14, 1:15 PM at Enzian
Writer-director Greg Pak (Mouse, FFF 1998 and Pomo Knock Knock, FFF 1999) showcases four vignettes exploring the mysteries of life, death, and love in a technology-enhanced world, never losing sight of our humanity. This multicultural sci-fi tragicomedy presents families confronting frailty and loss by coming to terms with death and loneliness. In "My Robot Baby" a career-oriented couple (Tamlyn Tomita, The Joy Luck Club, and James Saito, Pearl Harbor) adopt a robot baby and meet parenthood head on. In "The Robot Fixer" a desperate mother (Wai Ching-ho in a heartbreaking performance) uses robot toys to reach her comatose son. "Machine Love" provides a robot parable about love (starring Pak). And in the futuristic "Clay," an old sculptor (Sab Shimono) must choose between natural death and digital immortality. Funny, thoughtful, and touching, these stories plumb complexities and contradictions of human emotion. Pak discovers wonderful moments of connection within and between stories, reinforced by actors reappearing playing multiple roles. Also not to be missed are the animated title sequences by Dan Kanemoto.

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SHOWBOY
USA, 2002, 93 MIN, DIRECTED BY
CHRISTIAN TAYLOR AND LINDY HEYMANN
EAST COAST PREMIERE
Sunday, March 9, 3:15 PM at Park 2
Thursday, March 13, 9:30 PM at Park 3
Funny, tender and appealing, Showboy is a work of "faction"--real people, fictional adventures--as engaging in style as it is in content. A BBC documentary crew is following Christian Taylor, an English writer for Six Feet Under, as he looks for success in Hollywood. Within days, their subject is fired from his job, disappears, and is finally located in Las Vegas where he claims to be researching his next script. The truth is he is chasing another dream: he hopes to become a Vegas chorus boy--a job for which he seems totally unqualified in terms of talent, looks, and age. Taylor (who does write for Six Feet Under) plays himself with remarkable candor, and co-director Lindy Heymann brings added humor to the piece as she plays herself as the puzzled documentary director. The film is an absurd, charming, and humorous journey through the humiliation and exaltation that come with following a dream and living it.

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THE TECHNICAL WRITER
USA, 2002, 95 MIN, DIRECTED BY
SCOTT SAUNDERS
EAST COAST PREMIERE/2ND US SHOWING
Saturday, March 8, 9:15 PM at Enzian
Thursday, March 13, 7:15 PM at Park 3
Saturday, March 15, 9:30 PM at Loews
Scott Saunders, whose The Headhunter's Sister won a Grand Jury Award at the 1997 Florida Film Festival, returns with this striking new film rich with agoraphobia, eroticism, decadence, and love. The Technical Writer stars Tatum O'Neal and Michael Harris as an unlikely couple in a relationship straight out of Valmont. Harris is the title character, a man who has locked himself away from the world while O'Neal is a woman too much in it. When O'Neal and her husband, wonderfully played by William Forsythe, bring their pleasure seeking life-style into Harris's building, the stage is set for conflict and discovery. Each affects the other and, along the way, we are treated to a marvelous collection of quirky characters and amazing performances, which make the film both amusing and touching at once. Saunders has captured a world few of us know and has made it familiar with a wry and touching tenderness.

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ZERO DAY
USA, 2002, 92 MIN, DIRECTED BY
BEN COCCIO
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Sunday, March 9, 9:15 PM at Park 3
Wednesday, March 12, 4:30 PM at Enzian
Drawing its inspiration from the Columbine massacre, Zero Day is one of the best of the new faux documentaries inspired by The Blair Witch Project. But whereas Blair Witch is simply effective entertainment, Zero Day is that and much more. The film takes us into the world of Cal and Andre, two alienated teenagers determined to find meaning in their lives through a suicide attack on their high school. Hoping to assure their immortality, they use their video cameras to record everything they see as relevant to this endeavor. It is through this apparently amateur (though carefully staged and sensitively directed) footage that we are brought into their lives and seduced by their humor, their directness, the humanness of their condition, and their terrible single-mindedness. Unsentimental and unnerving, Zero Day points no fingers and wisely leaves it to us to judge its characters. It is a startling debut feature that's as suspenseful and disturbing as any we've seen in ages.

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