NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

March 31, 2001 12 AM PT

Unless otherwise marked, all films will be shown at Edwards Island 7

Cinemas, 999 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, and are $5. Tickets are

available by calling (888) 464-2468 or at o7 https://www.tickets.com.f7

TODAY

11 a.m.

Amargosa

o7 United States, 1999

f7 Producers: Sidney Sherman, Ken Carlson

Director: Todd Robinson

Screenwriter: Todd Robinson

Narrated by: Mary McDonnell

Running time: 93:00

o7 For Marta Becket, the creative life is an obstacle course of

self-doubt, criticism and abandonment -- a high price to pay for

self-expression. But for the 76-year-old artist isolated in the badlands

of Death Valley, creating and performing is her refuge.f7

11:30 a.m.

Short Films: Comedy Shorts

Cookies for Harry

Director: Nicholas Peterson

Running time: 4:20

o7 In 1995, filmmaker Nicholas Peterson’s grandfather, Harry Edwards,

died of severe mental anxiety. This film is based on his true story.

Defending The Super$ave

Director: Dave Fribush

Running time: 15:00

o7 Meet loss prevention agent Thomas Santiago, working the beat at

Super$ave SuperStore No. 802. When a professional shoplifterhits the

store, Santiago must confront not only ultimate evil, but also betrayal

by a former partner.

The Four of Us

Directors: Michael Mosser, Holly Justo-Mosser

Running time: 20:00

o7 A Hollywood power couple used to getting things their way have to

make adjustments when their “couple” friends start spending time with a

new couple.

Close the Door (Ferme La Porte)

Director: Steve Stein

Running time: 9:00

o7 Guy is angst-ridden and bitter. He feels he leads a life of quiet

desperation and daydreams about being an artist. The film follows him

through the course of one day.

Go Jimmy Go

Director: Doug Torres

Running time: 21:59

o7 It’s all about the chase.

Smackers

Director: Tara Miele

Running time: 1:26

o7 This parable lays bare the well-deserved fall from grace of junior

high royalty.

Let Me Tell You A Story

Director: Marlene Rhein

Running time: 9:30

o7 Lois describes a night of unfulfilled desires, while unsolicited

passion ignites in the background.

Hollywood Monkeys

Director: Chad Ahrendt

Running time: 13:00

o7 We’ve all heard the Hollywood saying, “Every film starts with a

script.” Truth be told, a script will never be seen twice without great

coverage. Coverage can make you, and coverage can break you.

The Dane

Director: Richard D’Alessio

Running time: 8:20

o7 David Huband’s hilarious seven-minute version of William

Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” set in a contemporary wiseguy bar.

1:30 p.m.

Minerva’s Quest (Entre la Tarde y la Noche)

o7 Mexico, 2000

f7 Producer: Angel Flores Marini

Director: Oscar Blancarte

Screenwriter: Oscar Blancarte

Cast: Angelica Aragon, Francisco Fattorno, Manuel Ojeda, Lumi Cavazos,

Martha L. Osuna

Running time: 105:00

* Screening will be the film’s West Coast premiere

o7 Minerva is a middle-aged writer who decides to break with her

uncertain present, returning to the port where she was born and to a past

filled with ghosts and fancies.

2 p.m.

The Mexican Americans

Producers: Robin Llompart, Blanca Santos

Executive producer: Roy Hammond

Director: Roman Brygider

Running time: 56:00

* Screening will be the West Coast premiere for this documentary,

which was broadcast on KOCE-TV.

o7 This documentary celebrates the contributions and culture of local

Orange County Mexican Americans, including Orange County-based attorney

Jesse Araujo; Newport Beach-based El Ranchito Restaurants co-owner Maria

Elena Avila; and Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Orange.

Pancho Villa And Other Stories

o7 Mexico/United States, 1999f7

Producer: Phillip Rodriguez

Director: Phillip Rodriguez

Running time: 40:00

* Screening will be attended by the director.

o7 Inspired by a conversation with the filmmaker’s Mexican-born

grandmother. “I asked her why she had left Mexico as a young girl, and

she explained that her sister had caught Pancho Villa’s eye and he had

made it known that he was coming back in town to have his way with her,”

Phillip Rodriguez said.

4 p.m.

Go Tigers!

o7 United States, 2000

f7 Producers: Sidney Sherman, Ken Carlson

Executive producer: Todd Robinson

Director: Kenneth A. Carlson

Screenwriter: Kenneth A. Carlson

Running time: 103:00

o7 Chronicles a remarkable season for the Massillon Tigers high

school football team, played out in a small Ohio rustbelt town that draws

its identity from football.f7

4:30 p.m.

Short Films: Academy Award Nominees

Big Mama

Director: Tracy Seretean

Running time: 40:00

* Won the Academy Award for best documentary shorto7 .

Film documents an 89-year-old African American grandmother’s struggle

to raise her troubled 9-year-old grandson under the watchful eye of a

cynical child welfare system.

Rejected

Director: Don Hertzfeldt

Running time: 9:30

* Nominated for best animation short.

o7 A fictional collision between art, commercial culture and madness.

A Soccer Story (Una Historia De Futbol)

Director: Paulo Machline

Running time: 21:00

* Nominated for best live action short.

o7 A 60-year-old man remembers playing soccer in his youth on the

streets of a Brazilian town and the kid who became the legendary Pele.

Seraglio

Directors: Gail Lerner, Colin Campbell

Running time: 13:00

* Nominated for best live action short

o7 After finding an anonymous love letter in a cabbage, an unhappy

housewife becomes an unlikely seductress.

Curtain Call

Director: Chuck Braverman

Running time: 38:00

* Nominated for best documentary short.

o7 The stories of those who helped lay the groundwork for today’s

entertainment industry.

By Courier

Director: Peter Riegert

Running time: 13:00

* Nominated for best live action short

o7 Two lovers on the outs can’t bridge the gap between them without

the help of a 13-year-old from the wrong side of the tracks.

6:30 p.m.

Innocents

o7 United States, 1999/2000

f7 Producers: Terry Carr, Gail Tilson

Director: Gregory Marquette

Screenwriter: Gregory Marquette

Cast: Connie Nielson, Jean-Hughes Anglade, Mia Kirshner, Anne Archer,

Frank Langella

Running time: 97:00

* Screening, to be attended by the director, producer and cast

members, will be the film’s West Coast premiere.

o7 A French professor meets two sisters with a haunted past while on

a road trip through the American Midwest.

7 p.m.

The French Connection

o7 United States, 1971

f7 Producers: Philip D’Antoni, G. David Schine, Kenneth Utt

Director: William Friedkin

Screenwriters: Robin Moore, Ernest Tidyman

Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel

Bozzuffi, Frederic de Pasquale, Bill Hickman, Ann Rebbot, Harold Gary,

Arlene Farber, Eddie Egan

Running time: 104:00

o7 This film about the largest narcotics seizure of all time in 1962

was a multiple-Oscar winner in 1971. The film centers on the real-life

adventures of two idiosyncratic Harlem special narcotics squad officers.

f7 * The Newport Beach Cinema Guild will host a 9 p.m. gala at

Fashion Island’s Atrium Court to honor the film’s 30th anniversary. $50.

9 p.m.

Sex, Shame and Tears (Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas)

o7 Mexico, 1999

f7 Producer: Matthias Ehrenberg

Director: Antonio Serrano

Screenwriter: Antonio Serrano

Cast: Demian Bichir, Monica Dionne, Victor Huggo Martin, Cecilia

Suarez, Susana Zabaleta, Jorge Salinas, Angelica Aragon

Running time: 105:00

o7 The story of three couples in contemporary Mexico as they struggle

with failed relationships, lies, drug addiction and sexual dysfunction. A

romantic comedy, this film became the most successful domestic film ever

in the history of Mexican cinema.

9:30 p.m.

Short Films: SMASH CUTS! Super Sci-fi Shorts

Intransit

Director: Mike Daly

Running time: 7:00

o7 Jump on this hyper-speed rush into a boy’s dark underworld where

he’s confronted by the vengeful father of his imagination.

Airtime

Director: Rolf Kesterman

Running time: 11:00

o7 When an ambitious young woman interferes with a television

execution, she must endure the wrath of an Orwellian government.

Megahurtz

Director: Darrin Plant

Running time: 10:00

o7 Ernie must decide whether he will stand on his own or let

computers control his destiny in this futuristic comedy.f7

Amplifier

Director: Glenn Forbes

Running time: 16:00

o7 In the future, a shared addiction to tele-visual technology haunts

the lives of a new mother and, 25 years later, her grown daughter.

The Duel On Planet Z

Director: Sterling Bishop

Running time: 4:00

o7 This 1950s-style sci-fi thriller pits two men against

mind-altering alien orbs in a fight for survival.

Big Day Off

Director: David Janssen

Running time: 13:00

o7 In the future, there are no holidays.

Sand Trooper

Director: Tory Bellici

Running time: 7:00

o7 In a post-apocalyptic world, a rebel soldier is sent on a suicide

mission to destroy an enemy fortress.

Bubble Pac

Director: Rick Dublin

Running time: 11:00

o7 A horrific, postmodern comedy that distinguished the dispensable

from the indispensable.

NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

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