EL REINO DE LOS CIEIOS (The Water Carrier)

In 1926, in a mountain village in Columbia, a young doctor operates on a blind man suffering from cataracts—the first operation of its kind ever performed in the country.  As a result, Berriabe, an old man who supplies water to the village, recovers his sight after 50 years of blindness.  Based on atrue story, El Reino De Los Cieios tells the incredible tale of Berriabe and the difficulties he experiences after recovering his sight.

Directed by:  Patricia Cardoso. 

STOLEN DAYS

Stolen Days is an experimental documentary that the filmmmaker created in resposne to his brother's battle with cancer.  The fim merges the voices and poems of five terminally ill young adults with abstract imagery and documentary footage to create a unified voice of remembrance and discovery exploring what is truly important in our lives.

David's experience with his brother Mark brought him into contact with an entire community of young adults with a tremendous desire to talk, but without an outlet for expression.  When Mark died, David was compelled to continue working with other young adults in the later stages of their disease.

Stolen Days is a personal film that does not prey on the tragedy it documents:  rather it succeeds because of its visual style and positive message its subjects share with all of us.

Directed by:  David Hamlin.

YELLOW LOTUS (30 min.)

Yellow Lotus is the story of a peasant fisherman named Le Hy Tuan who leaves his fishing village to find wealth in the big city of Saigon.  He is drawn there by the country's sudden change from socialism to amore capitalistic economy under a new policy in 1989 known as "Doi Moi" (The New Generation).

When Tuan arrives in Saigon, he discovers a crowded, claustrophobic world filled with impoverishment and limited resources.  Beggars fill the streets and work is scarece.  His predicament worsens when he finds that his benefactor and only contact in the city died before his arrival.  He is thrust into this harsh environment alone and desititute.  The "new world" he believed would bring him wealth and prosperity instead has coldly delivered him poverty, loneliness, and discontent.

Contrasting the harsh physical world is the world of his mind.  Images of the open and serene village he left behind billow in his subconscious, offering temporary solace.  He is physically detached from his home and socially invisible in the city.  He is caught between these two worlds, void of a true identity.

Tuan's fortune changes as he befriends a sculptor who helps him look at life in different terms.  Through the magical tale of a yellow lotus, he inspires Tuan to reclaim his passion for life, encouraging him to fill an emptiness he has kept inside and shed light on a blackened heart.

Directed by:  Tony Bui

COVENANT

Joshua, a young Hasidic rabbinical student, witnesses a fatal neo-nazi skinhead attack against his fiance.  When the district attorney's office proves reluctant to pursue a full investigation, Joshua resolves to seek a more personal vengeance.  Shaving off his hair and forelocks, Joshua infiltrates the neo-nazi skinhead group responsible for the attack.  Joshua's tragedy is not only that he kills the perpetrator of a horrific crim but that he also destroys his soul as a Jew.

Directed by: Jason Wulfsohn

GREAT HARRY & JANE (30 min.)

After 20 years as king, Henry VIII still lacks the one thing that will secure his family's claim to the throne: a son.  He married his first wife, the stiff-backed Katherine of Aragon, for political expediency and the second, Anne Boleyn, for lust. Henry and his wives had two daughters and seven dead infants.  Many believed Henry was cursed by God for his arrogance—he was a brilliant man who used his talents selfishly and ruthlessly.  Finally, Henry met Jane and fell in love, the frustrations of two decades melting away before her goodness.  For her sake Henry at last matures and he seeks to be a good man. Then Jane becomes pregnant.  In an attempt to nurture the royal family, she reintroduces Henry's banished daughters to court, but he older girl, Mary (who would become known as "Bloody" Mary) hates her father and she immediately starts to undermine Jane's faith in Henry by recounting to her the horrific fates of Katherine and Anne.  Jane desperately wants to believe in her husband but the evidence mounts against him.  Finally, it is time for the baby to be born and Henry faces a terrible choice that will reveal his true character.

Directed by: Salvador Litvak