2016 Festival
1. Imber’s Left Hand
Richard Kane, Director
USA, 2014 (Not Rated)
English (80 min.)
Sunday January 31, 2:00PM
(PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL SCREENING LOCATION!!)
UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital's Pavilion A Auditorium
This inspiring documentary chronicles the life and career of renowned painter Jon Imber, who faced great adversity after being diagnosed with ALS. Director Richard Kane follows Imber as he remains determined to continue his work as an artist, despite his condition. His heroic resolve leads to the creation of more than 100 portraits in an incredible four month span. The film sensitively observes Jon, capturing him at his most courageous and humorous as the disease claims his body. Thanks in large part to the loving support of his wife, painter Jill Hoy, Imber learns to paint with his left hand, and eventually with both hands held together at his waist. Knowing what his fate holds, Jon Imber shows what it is to truly live and die through art.
2. Leviathan
Andrey Zvyagintsev, Director
Russia, 2014 (R)
Russian w/subtitles (140 min.)
Thursday February 4, 7:00PM
Kentucky Theatre
The stunning, Oscar-nominated new film from modern Russian master Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena), LEVIATHAN is a gripping parable of class, faith and corruption, centering on a dispute between a small-time mechanic and his local authorities that reaps unimaginable and extraordinary consequences.
Zvyagintsev’s deftly-drawn and morally complex thriller is an electrifying, vodka-fuelled examination of the familial, sexual and judicial tangles of ordinary human lives, played out against the monstrous machinations of Putin’s seemingly unchecked regime. Saturated with incredible imagery, superb performances and sly, Kafkaesque humour, this astounding and frequently surprising masterwork should, quite simply, not be missed.
NOMINEE – 2015 ACADEMY AWARDS: Best Foreign Language Film
3. McFarland, USA
Niki Caro , Director
USA, 2015 (PG)
English (129 min.)
Saturday February 6, 10:00AM
(SATURDAY MORNING SCREENING TIME)
Kentucky Theatre
In this inspiring Disney sports drama based on actual events, Kevin Costner plays a high-school football coach who ends up leading a cross-country track team made up of lower-class Latino students to a state championship.
Jim White (Costner) finds his days as a football coach numbered when an incident with a player leads to his dismissal. Desperate for work, he moves his wife (Maria Bello) and daughters (Morgan Saylor and Elsie Fisher) from Idaho to McFarland, CA, a rural town that's predominately Latino and the only place willing to give him a teaching job. The family feel like they don't fit into their new community, but White has an epiphany one day when he sees his students running from their early-morning farming jobs to school: Why not channel their talents into running cross-country track? Soon enough, White is connecting with his young charges, particularly a gifted athlete named Thomas (Carlos Pratts), and the squad set their sights on a state championship.
4. Woman in Gold
Simon Curtis, Director
UK, 2015 (PG-13)
German & English with subtitles (109 min.)
Thursday February 11, 7:00PM
Kentucky Theatre
Sixty years after fleeing Vienna, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish woman, attempts to reclaim family possessions that were seized by the Nazis. Among them is a famous portrait of Maria's beloved Aunt Adele: Gustave Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." With the help of young lawyer Randy Schoeberg (Ryan Reynolds), Maria embarks upon a lengthy legal battle to recover this painting and several others, but it will not be easy, for Austria considers them national treasures.
5. I Am Eleven
Genevieve Bailey, Director
Australia, 2011 (Not Rated)
English (98 min.)
Saturday February 13, 10:00AM
(SATURDAY MORNING SCREENING TIME)
Kentucky Theatre
Australian filmmaker Genevieve Bailey travelled the world for six years talking with 11-year-olds to compose this insightful, funny and moving documentary portrait of childhood. From an orphanage in India, to a single-parent household in inner-city Melbourne, to bathing with elephants in Thailand, I AM ELEVEN explores the lives and thoughts of children from 15 countries. I AM ELEVEN weaves together deeply personal and at times hilarious portraits of what it means to sit at this transitional age. These young minds provide us with a powerful insight into the future of our world.
6. Dallas Buyer’s Club
Jean-Marc Vallée, Director
USA, 2013 (R)
English (117 min.)
Thursday February 18, 7:00PM
Kentucky Theatre
In mid-1980s Texas, electrician Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is stunned to learn that he has AIDS. Though told that he has just 30 days left to live, Woodroof refuses to give in to despair. He seeks out alternative therapies and smuggles unapproved drugs into the U.S. from wherever he can find them. Woodroof joins forces with a fellow AIDS patient (Jared Leto) and begins selling the treatments to the growing number of people who can't wait for the medical establishment to save them.
WINNER – 2014 ACADEMY AWARDS: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
NOMINEE – 2014 ACADEMY AWARDS: Best Picture
7. Today’s Special
David Kaplan, Director
USA, 2009 (R)
English (99 min.)
Saturday February 20, 10:00AM
(SATURDAY MORNING SCREENING TIME)
Kentucky Theatre
Samir (Aasif Mandvi), a sous chef at an upscale New York restaurant, becomes frustrated with his boss (Dean Winters) and quits. His dreams of studying French cooking in France are shattered after his father becomes ill and he must take over his family's Indian restaurant, Tandoori Palace in Queens with two chefs who don't know what they're doing, an old fashioned wall and business being terrible since the only customers are Samir's uncles sitting at a table playing cards. Samir doesn't know what to do because his knowledge of Indian cooking is limited until he meets the larger than life gourmet chef and taxi driver Akbar (Naseeruddin Shah). Samir's world is transformed via Akbar's cooking lessons, the magic of the masala and a beautiful co-worker, Carrie (Jess Weixler).
8. Raise the Roof
Yari Wolinsky, Director
USA, 2015 (Not Rated)
Polish & English with subtitles (85 min.)
Thursday February 25, 7:00PM
Kentucky Theatre
Rivaling the greatest wooden architecture in history, the synagogues of 18th-century Poland inspired artists Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio
to embark on a 10-year pursuit—to reconstruct the elaborate roof and painted ceiling of the Gwozdziec synagogue. Leading over 300 students and professionals from 16 countries, the Browns grapple not just with the echoes of World War II when these buildings were destroyed by the Nazis, but also with warped timbers, tricky paints, and period hand tools. By the end of the project, they have done more than reconstruct a lost synagogue: they have recovered a lost world. In 2014, the Gwozdziec roof was unveiled as the centerpiece of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
9. The Island President
Jon Shenk, Director
USA, 2011 (PG)
English (101 min.)
Saturday February 27, 10:00AM
(SATURDAY MORNING SCREENING TIME)
Kentucky Theatre
Jon Shenk’s THE ISLAND PRESIDENT is the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced—the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. After bringing democracy to the Maldives after thirty years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable. THE ISLAND PRESIDENT captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, where the film provides a rare glimpse of the political horse-trading that goes on at such a top-level global assembly.
ON FEBRUARY 7, 2012, MOHAMED NASHEED RESIGNED THE PRESIDENCY UNDER THE THREAT OF VIOLENCE IN A COUP D'ETAT PERPETRATED BY SECURITY FORCES LOYAL TO THE FORMER DICTATOR. THIS FILM IS THE STORY OF HIS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE.
10. Poverty, Inc.
Michael Matheson Miller, Director
USA, 2014 (Not Rated)
English (94 min.)
Thursday March 3, 7:00PM
Kentucky Theatre
The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry — the business of doing good has never been better.
“I see multiple colonial governors,” says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. “We are held captive by the donor community.”
Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, POVERTY, INC. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we can no longer ignore. From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?
11. Jiro Dreams of Sushi
David Gelb, Director
USA, 2011 (PG)
English (81 min.)
Saturday March 5, 10:00AM
(SATURDAY MORNING SCREENING TIME)
Kentucky Theatre
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI is the story of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious three-star Michelin Guide rating, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar. JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI is a thoughtful and elegant meditation on work, family, and the art of perfection, chronicling Jiro’s life as both an unparalleled success in the culinary world and as a loving yet complicated father.
