United States

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All she ever wanted to do was dance, but ended up getting so much more.

Season:
2010
Premiere status:
World Premiere
Director:
Brian Jamieson
Cinematography:
Dave Strohmaier, Brandon L. Hull, Craig McCourry
Cast:
Nancy Kwan, Joan Chen, France Nuyen, Vivian Wu, Sandra Allen
Editor:
Brandon L. Hull, David Strohmaier
Producer:
Brian Jamieson
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary
Music:
Chris Babida

Running time: N/A

A young girl and her grandfather find a common bond through dance.

Season:
2010
Director:
Mary Ann Kellogg

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Winner - Kaiser Permanente Thrive Award

Children will thrive, even under the most challenging of circumstances.

Just miles from the U.S. border lies a huge garbage dump in Tijuana. Within this dump is a community which Mother Teresa described as ?one of the world?s most destitute.? But this is NOT a story of despair and hopelessness.

Season:
2010
Premiere status:
WORLD PREMIERE
Director:
John Sheedy
Cinematography:
John Sheedy
Editor:
Scot Davis, John Sheedy
Producer:
Brian Knighten, John Sheedy
Language:
English and Spanish with English subtitles
Genre:
Documentary
Music:
Matthew Valverde

Running time: N/A

A scrappy group of commodities traders try to make it big, before the floor goes electronic.

The Pit: one of the most primitive, yet highly ritualized arenas of the financial world, The New York Board of Trade floor. Amidst the shouting and hand signals, the Pit is also a chaotic masterpiece of eye-to-eye trading. Through relationships built during her time as an NYBOT clerk, director Johanna Lee was given unprecedented access to the Pit where she captured intense competition for survival, personal dramas and trading tickets.

Season:
2010
Director:
Johanna Lee
Cinematography:
Bryan Sarkinen, Vanja Cernjul
Cast:
Joseph DiGiso, Jon Stefanick
Editor:
Charles Marquardt
Producer:
Johanna Lee, Jeffrey Friedman, Robert Epstein
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary

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?You start by scribbling, but you end up emoting.?

Alex Caldiero describes himself as a ?sonosopher. ? He creates emotions and thoughts with sound. To Caldiero, sound is more than just music. When people hear words, they normally associate them with meanings and conveyances of thought. In reality, spoken words are merely sounds. Every spoken syllable is but a drop of water in a great symphony. When you speak, you sing. When you rely entirely on instruments, you actually constrain your own musical talent.

Season:
2010
Premiere status:
World Premiere
Director:
Torben Bernhard, Travis Low
Cinematography:
Torben Bernhard, Travis Low
Cast:
Alex Caldiero
Editor:
Torben Bernhard, Travis Low
Producer:
Marissa Bernhard, Vegor Pedersen
Language:
English, Italian and Sicilian with English subtitles
Genre:
Documentary
Music:
Alex Caldiero, Gentry Densley

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WINNER for Best Film: San Jose 48 Hour Film Project Awards.

A pair of exterminators drop in to help a dry cleaning heiress with her rat problem.

Season:
2010
Director:
Jacob Rangel

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His methods are irreverent. His passion inspires.

Jay Holstein is a brilliant, charismatic, foul-mouthed professor at the University of Iowa, as well as an ordained rabbi who loves firing his handgun. Speaking to his impressionable and enraptured students on subjects such as sex, homosexuality, alcohol, the Holocaust, suicide and the inherent nature of man, the 69-year-old Holstein dominates the classroom in a way that turns the education system on its head.

Season:
2010
Premiere status:
World Premiere
Director:
Daniel Kraus
Cinematography:
Daniel Kraus
Cast:
Jay Holstein
Editor:
Daniel Kraus
Producer:
Daniel Kraus
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary

Running time: N/A

A film from the past determines the fate of a murderer.

In their film Aging Out (Cinequest 2004), Oscar-nominated Roger Weisberg and Oscar-winning Vanessa Roth portrayed the struggle of young people breaking out of the foster care system. Shortly after the film was completed, one of the subjects, Risa Bejarano, was brutally murdered. And to the dismay of Weisberg and Roth, their film played an integral role in determining whether the person accused of killing Risa was to live or die.

Season:
2010
Premiere status:
World Premiere
Director:
Roger Weisberg, Vanessa Roth
Cinematography:
Arthur Yee, John Hazard
Editor:
Tom Haneke
Producer:
Roger Weisberg, Vanessa Roth
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary
Music:
Richard Fiocca

Running time: N/A

Risking being denounced as an 'enemy of the people,' a man rescues 40,000 works of art.

During the reign of the Soviet Union, a small group of artists remained true to their vision despite threats of torture, imprisonment and even death. Igor Savitsky, recognizing the brilliance of these courageous men, cajoled money out of the same authorities who were banning the paintings and amassed an amazing collection of Russian modern art. With nowhere to display his collection, he convinced a desert outpost in Uzbekistan to build a museum to house the masterpieces, now worth millions.

Season:
2010
Director:
Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope
Cinematography:
Alexander Dolgin, Gennadi Balitsk
Cast:
Sir Ben Kingsley, Edward Asner, Sally Field
Editor:
Tchavdar Georgiev
Producer:
Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary
Music:
Miriam Cutler

Running time: N/A

Can Mormons take the sex out of ?R? rated movies?

There are people who object to sex scenes in films. The Mormon Church goes so far as to advocate that their members avoid ?R? rated films. But with so many good movies carrying the dreaded ?R,? what is a devout Mormon to do? A company called Clean Flicks came up with a solution - edit out the offensive parts and everyone will be happy. Or so they thought.

Season:
2010
Director:
Andrew James, Joshua Ligairi
Cinematography:
Andrew James, Joshua Ligairi
Cast:
Daniel Thompson, Ray Lines, Neil LaBute
Editor:
Andrew James, Joshua Ligairi
Producer:
Amber Bollinger, Andrew James, Joshua Ligairi
Executive Producer:
Stephen A. Oxman, Jr., Rachel Mae Ligairi, Jolyn Schleiffarth
Language:
English
Genre:
Documentary
Music:
Chris Ohran
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