AMERICAN INDEPENDENT COMPETITION - DOCUMENTARIES
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Saturday, April 9 at 7:15pm at Regal Winter Park Village
Thursday, April 14 at 1:45pm at Enzian Theater
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USA, 2005, 113 MIN
DIRECTED BY STEVE JAMES
EAST COAST PREMIERE
The latest work by Steve James, the producer-director of Hoop Dreams and Stevie (FFF 2003), REEL PARADISE follows the impresario of American independent cinema to the most remote movie theater in the world. An often hilarious and always thought-provoking real-life version of Cinema Paradiso crossed with The Mosquito Coast, the film documents John and Janet Pierson’s one-year adventure in Taveuni, Fiji. With funding help from some of the filmmakers he’s assisted along the way (Kevin Smith, South Park's Matt Stone, our very own Haxan guys), John, with his New York family in tow, makes a go of running the problematic movie house and showing American, British, and Hindi films for free. Alternately humorous and heartbreaking clashes of culture, religion, and work ethics ensue. But the way the capacity Taveuni crowd howls in laughter reminds us of the true pleasures of going to the movies, and this frank portrait of a very American family abroad provides a fascinating documentary experience.