Knoxville Museum of Art

Tuesday | November 13

11:00
The Mysterious Lost State of Franklin: 
The State of Franklin rose from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, following the Revolutionary War, on territory that would eventually become part of present-day East Tennessee. That land was claimed by the state of North Carolina, which briefly ceded it to Congress in an attempt to pay off that state’s war debt. Land speculators however, opposed the statehood movement of the Franklinites, eventually leading to a complex and violent conflict between two factions led by the region’s most dynamic leaders—John Sevier and John Tipton. “This documentary has aired locally on East Tennessee PBS and The Tennessee Channel, and features seven area museums and historical sites, including Ramsey House and Fort Loudon. The American Association for State and Local History recently chose this film as a 2012 Award of Merit winner. The East Tennessee Historical Society in May presented the film’s production company, Nolichucky Pictures, with an Award of Distinction for excellence in research and production” (Knoxville News Sentinel, June 10, 2012) 27min rated G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thpcHDyLW8


11:30
Toot Toot [Australia]: 
A cheeky Christmas film about Stan, a six year-old boy who dares to open his present early. But when it doesn’t live up to the picture on the box, he takes matters into his own hands. While his determined approach to fulfill his Christmas wish may get him into a whole lot of trouble, fear not; Stan understands the true spirit of Christmas! 8min rated G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9XZ-XMP7ic


11:44
Shades of Beige [U.K.]: 
Jodie (Michelle Dockery from “Downton Abbey”) and her brother Brian have shared an unusually close bond since their infancy, but when he is convicted of child abuse it begins to unravel. The fragmented narrative jumps between the comforting world of their past and their struggle to salvage their lost idyll. 16min rated R—language and subject


12:05
Naagahaan, Zinat… (Suddenly, Zinat…) [Iran]: 
The life of Simin, a 35-year-old teacher, is turned upside down when Nasibeh, the biological mother of her child, wants her daughter back. 21min rated PG http://vimeo.com/39862069

12:00 | TOOTSIE TRUCK – Catering – KMA Terrace

12:30
Sua Me (Mother’s Milk) [Vietnam, U.S.A.]: 
It is the late 1980s. Seven-year-old Anh lives in the Vietnamese countryside with her 27-year-old mother Hang, and four-year-old sister Qui. The girls’ father passed away a few years before. They spend their days harvesting corn, and enjoy the fruit from the Vu Sua tree in their small yard. This little team works well until Hang becomes ill. 18min rated G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3bmjbAqJos


12:55
The Bench [Switzerland]: 
One sunny day, 80 years ago or yesterday, a man takes a break. Unfortunately that isn’t as easy as it sounds, even in a silent film. Two minutes later, The End fast approaching, help comes unexpectedly. Salvation!? The Bench is a film fable reduced to its crystalline essence. Five minutes, four acts, three characters, and a surprise ending. 5min rated G


1:05
No [Spain]: 
“The perfection in your hand”. An emerging model for advertisements all of a sudden suffers a physical defect that drives him into a process of self-destruction. A descent into hell around the obsession with looks. 10min Rated R (violence to self and graphic images)


1:20
Abrazos Gratis (Free Hugs) [Spain]: 
Natalia is going through a hard time due to her long unemployment, and recent break-up. Her friend Bea encourages her to experience the ‘Free Hugs’, initiatives where a group of people gather just for the sake of giving hugs to anyone that want them. The aim is to offer affection and warmth to fight against pessimism and loneliness. Is this what Natalia needs to keep going? 19min


1:45
Little Tibet: 
This exciting new documentary follows Sonam, a U.K. based Tibetan, on a voyage of discovery to Ladakh in the high Himalaya, in search of his living cultural identity. Both moving and funny, the film is accompanied by a fresh and unvarnished narrative describing the challenges faced traveling through inhospitable terrain, the warmth of welcomes, eccentric encounters, the living traditions of centuries, and the wonderful and evocative vistas of the dramatic and unspoiled landscape. 90min rated G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYRjQPMDjAs


3:25
After I Pick the Fruit: 
This is a documentary that follows the lives of five immigrant farm worker women over a ten-year period as they labor in the apple orchards and fields of rural, western New York, migrate seasonally to Florida, raise their families, and try to hide from the Bush-era immigration raids that were conducted in response to September 11, 2001. Filmed in New York, Florida, and Mexico, this intimate, bittersweet feature length film illuminates a community that is nearly invisible to most Americans, and will change the way you look at our national immigration problem. 93min rated G http://www.afteripickthefruit.com/

5:30 RECEPTION – Adam Leipzig : Co-producer of “Titus”

6:00 Titus:

Director Julie Taymor’s film adaptation of the popular Shakespeare play Titus Andronicus that was loosely based on history serves up a surreal tragedy of Titus, his hostages, his family and intrigue in a Roman court steeped in every excess of vicious revenge, brutality, murder and rape. “…hold you to your seat if you have watched other Shakespeare play based movies previously, for it is intense.” (IMDb reviewer) Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. 162 min rated R—language and violence


Wednesday | November 14

11:00
The Story: 
A team of nine, from the U.S. and Canada, band together on a journey of hope and adventure to Africa. Arriving in Dar es Salaam, they begin as privileged vacationers on Safari. After exploring the beauty and charm of Africa, the team travels a day’s journey into the heart of Africa where they seek to make a difference among AIDS orphans and the Inala village of Tanzania. Dealing with their own preconceived ideas, prejudices, and past hurts, they find courage and personal transformation in the most unexpected people and places. Eating strange food, living in small huts, and helping the indigenous village, they discover that their journey is much more than an exercise in volunteerism. It’s a journey of discovering who they really are. 55min rated G http://thestoryafrica.com/


12:00
Ditchwork: 
A young woman in Hong Kong is grieving over the recent passing of her grandmother. Haunted by the void, and sickened by the loss, she exercises a series of rituals in an attempt to self-release from the attachments of this expired relationship. She begins to question her identity while navigating the real and the imagined. Investigating her ancestry in order to glean an understanding from it, she experiences the supernatural history of places her family once inhabited. 26min rated G


12:30
Fabrica de Munecas (Dolls Factory) [Spain]: 
Ana works in a doll factory. She puts the eyes onto the heads of dolls over and over again. Her entire life revolves around the mechanical movements she performs at the factory. But a small adjustment to her job will change her life forever. 11min rated G


12:45
La Mirada Perdida (The Missing Looks) [Argentina]: 
Argentina, 1976. Claude is forced to live with his family in hiding, due to his political ideals. The house in which they live is discovered by a military task force. No time to flee, Teresa tries to shelter their daughter in a fantasy world to avoid the girl looking at the horror in which they are about to live. 11min rated PG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy-Y3z2KEcI


1:00
Les Rideaux Rouges (Las Telas Rojas) (The Red Curtains) [Spain, France, Argentina]: 
An Oedipus without a complex. Jose, a young man and an orphan, and Pablo, a boy of 13, his eternal accomplice, flee the city, under threat and are condemned to drift. Jose, who wants to solve the mystery of his identity-Who am I? Who are my parents? Who is my mother?-is going to have to enter the adult world and set off to find his destiny through a long, solitary dialogue with nature and the rhythms of the world. A film that provides a contemporary vision of an ancestral myth. 35min rated R (for nudity and language)


1:40
Jesus Was a Moonwalker: 
After millennia of being dominated by religious imagery, the art world is now discussing anything but. Jesus Was a Moonwalker is a documentary featuring interviews with historians, critics, curators, and artists about the qualms of including religious content in the contemporary art scene. By collaborating with Kansas City’s awesome performers, dancers, and models, JWAM includes recreations of several works of art known for their sensationalized religious content. 40min rated PG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkmlF4IfnSQ


2:25
Cardboard Titanics: 
A short documentary that follows a group of highly educated and successful people (scientists, lawyers, doctors, pilots and artists) who meet once a year to construct and race boats made solely of cardboard and duct tape. There’s no real reward, it’s just a delightfully stupid way to spend a day off. If anything, Cardboard Titanics teaches us one thing: smart people doing something stupid for no apparent reason is really funny. 9min rated PG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiKh-1pqDsQ


2:40
Andrew Bird: Fever Year: 
Filmed during the culminating months of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s most rigorous year of touring, Andrew Bird crosses the December finish line in his hometown of Chicago—feverish and on crutches from an onstage injury. Is he suffering hazards from chasing the ghost of inspiration? Or merely transforming into a different kind of animal ‘perfectly adapted to the music hall?’ Fever Year is the first to capture Bird’s precarious multi-instrumental looping technique and features live performances at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater with collaborators Martin Dosh, Jeremy Ylvisaker, Michael Lewis, and Annie Clark of St. Vincent. 81min rated G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOKd7aFC-AM


Thursday | November 15

11:00
Mating for Life: 
This intimate documentary, narrated by the filmmaker, focuses on a personal pilgrimage to witness the annual spring migration of the Sandhill Cranes; a metaphor for human transformation. Mating for Life evokes a meditation on nature and art, and poses essential questions about our need for both connection and solitude. 49min rated G http://cindystillwell.com/matingforlife/?page_id=9


11:53
The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill: 
A young female pines for true love, but when she finds her “special someone”, she also finds a heap of trouble! 23min rated G


12:20
When You Find Me: 
Tells the story of two sisters whose childhood bond is tested by a tragedy they are too young to understand. Alternating between past and present, When You Find Me is an emotional fable of two people coping with loss in very different ways, and what it takes to find peace within yourself and reconciliation with the ones you love. This film is the directorial debut of Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of Ron Howard, and part of his Project Imagin8ion. 29min rated G http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52bdmsMtYI


12:55
7 Or Why I Exist [Germany]: 
Children take us into their world, into their lives, and show us what really matters to them, what they love, what is important to them, what makes them laugh and what makes them cry. Seven children from around the world develop their own answers. They tell us their stories: with amazement for the world around them and the desire to make a difference. 84 min (German, French, and Spanish subtitles) rated PGhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qr0VLQauEA


2:20
Currency: 
This film weaves together a tapestry of tales as we observe several lives over the course of eight decades. A writer asks why we live. A child asks why we die. Mobsters ask why life has value. An old woman asks why we are alone. A scientist asks why there is anything at all. Part mystery, part drama, Currency is a collection of simple stories about the hard questions we are all dying to have answered. We all want to know why, and we all die. 83min rated R—language and violence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPUhbeqE8Y4


3:45
Prayers for Peace: 
A narrative stop motion animation confronting the memory of the artist’s younger brother killed in the current conflict in Iraq. Drawn using pastels on a slate chalkboard, the entire film is shot in two continuous scenes, with the current image drawn directly on top of the previous, leaving the memory of the previous drawings to continue into the present. Much of the footage was borrowed directly from images off the soldier’s laptop that was returned to the family. Also taken off the laptop was an audio file recorded in the active combat area of Najaf, where the young man expresses his feelings on the experience. 8min rated PG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDWETeX0w3Y


Sunday | November 18

Best of the Best

2:00
Film from Knoxville Horror Film Festival

3:00
Film from Secret City Film Festival

4:00
Film from Handheld Film Festival

5:00 GALA RECEPTION

6:00 SOAPIFF AWARDS

6:15 BEST FILM of SOAPIFF

screening TBA