"WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The RiverRun International Film Festival today announced the full lineup of films for the 17th annual Festival, which has expanded from 10 to 11 days, running April 16-26, 2015. This year RiverRun will screen more films than ever before: a total of 165 films, including 74 features and 91 shorts.
“Once again, we’ve put together a fantastic lineup of films for this year’s Festival, ranging from fun animation and powerful issue documentaries, to groundbreaking independent works and critically-acclaimed international movies, as well as strong North Carolina filmmakers from our own backyard,” said RiverRun executive director, Andrew Rodgers. “We’ve selected some of the best cinema from around the world to share with our audiences – and I believe we’ve put together our largest and strongest program yet.”
The Festival will open on Thursday, April 16 with two films. The first Opening Night film is REALITY, a French comedy by director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber), and starring Alain Chabat and supporting actor Jon Heder (Napolean Dynamite), about an aspiring director who is given 48 hours by a producer to fulfill a producer’s strange request as the only condition to getting his movie made. The second opening night film is FRESH DRESSED, a documentary which chronicles the history of hip-hop and urban fashion and its rise from Southern cotton plantations to the gangs of 1970s in the South Bronx, to corporate America, and everywhere in between. The Festival will close on April 26 with MANGLEHORN, the latest work from UNCSA alum and RiverRun Emerging Master honoree David Gordon Green, starring Al Pacino as a strange and lonely locksmith struggling to come to terms with a past crime that cost him the love of his life. In between, the Festival will feature a wide variety of features, documentaries, shorts and animation in competition sections, as well as many films in non-competition sidebars.
Additionally, RiverRun will host a series of free panels and conversations at Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts. Director Stanley Nelson, Jr. (Freedom Summer, Freedom Riders, “The Murder Of Emmett Till“) will receive RiverRun’s 2015 Master of Cinema Award at a Conversation with Stanley Nelson, following the screening of BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION, on April 24 at 2:00 p.m.; co-directors and founders of Loki Films, Hedi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Detropia) will receive RiverRun’s 2015 Emerging Master Award at the Conversation with Hedi Ewing and Rachel Grady on April 25 at 1:00 p.m.
Also, included in the non-competition lineup this year is a Spotlight on Black American Cinema 1971-1991 with a panel discussion Spotlight Conversation with Charles Burnett & Robert Townsend exploring the past of black American cinema on April 20 at 6:00 p.m. at Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts.
Additional sidebars include our fifth year of Altered States: New Directions in American Cinema.
ALL TICKET PRICES ARE $12 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.
2015 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
NARRATIVE COMPETITION: The 2015 Narrative Competition is incredibly diverse, including films from around the world that range from international comedies to lyrical dramas. The ten films in the Narrative Competition are eligible for jury prizes and the Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, LLP Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.
AMOUR FOU – Austria / Luxembourg / Germany / Director: Jessica Hausner
The comically tragic young poet Heinrich wishes to make a dramatic statement on the nature of existence, yet is unable to convince his skeptical cousin Marie to join him in a suicide pact. In the most unlikely of scenarios, Amour Fou manifests as a “romantic comedy” based loosely on the life of the poet Henrich von Kleist in 1811.
96 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 18 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1
April 19 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
ANYWHERE ELSE – Germany / Israel / Director: Ester Amrami
Noa, an Israeli grad student working on her thesis in Berlin about untranslatable words, returns home to find her family less than enamored with her life choices and struggles to define her connections to both place and family.
87 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 18 / 4:30pm/ a/perture 2
April 20 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
FELIX AND MEIRA– Canada / Director: Maxime Giroux
105 min. – Rating: MT
A young married woman from Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community finds freedom from the strictures of her faith through her relationship with a young man who is mourning the death of his estranged father.
April 24 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 25 / 8:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
April 26 / 11:00am / UNCSA-Gold
FIVE STAR– USA / Director: Keith Miller
A member of the Bloods since age twelve (in reality and fictionally), Primo takes a teenage boy, whose father has just been shot, under his wing and verses him in the ways of the streets. The two must decide what future awaits them, and how they will each realize their fates.
83 min. – Rating: MT
April 24 / 4:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 25 / 4:30pm / UNCSA-Gold
April 26 / 10:30am / UNCSA-Main
LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT –France / Director Thomas Cailley
Arnaud, aimless in a small French town, falls for the cynical Madeleine, who joins an army boot camp to prepare for armageddon. Intrigued by her, Arnaud also signs up for boot camp, and their amusingly combative courtship eventually becomes a struggle for survival itself.
98 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 4:30pm / UNCSA-Main
April 20 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 21 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
MEMORIES ON STONE – Iraq / Germany / Director: Shawkat Amin Korki
Kurdish childhood friends Hussein and Alan naively resolve to produce a film about the genocide of Kurdish people in Iraq, specifically the Anfal campaign of 1988. They learn that in order to will the film into existence, they must put everything on the line—even their own lives.
96 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 10:00am / a/perture 1 - $6
April 18 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1
April 25 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1
REFUGIADO – Argentina / Colombia / France / Poland / Director: Diego Lerman
Seven year-old Matías returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. When she comes to, they must act quickly to find safety from an abusive relative and spend a harrowing few days on the run in search of a safe haven.
93 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 10:30am / a/perture 2
April 20 / 4:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 26 / 1:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
THE SECOND MOTHER – Brazil / Director: Anna Muylaert
When the estranged daughter of a housekeeper suddenly appears, the tacit class barriers that exist within the affluent home are thrown into disarray in this sly Brazilian satire. Lead actress Regina Casé is a comedic force of nature, earning her a Best Actress award at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
110 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 10:30am / a/perture 2 - $6
April 18 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
STILL THE WATER – Japan / Spain / France / Director: Naomi Kawase
On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, 16-year-old Kaito discovers a dead body floating in the sea. His girlfriend Kyoko attempts to help him make sense of this mysterious discovery, and together they will learn to understand interwoven cycles of life, death and love.
121 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 1:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 20 / 2:00pm / Hanesbrands - $6
April 22 / 5:00pm / Hanesbrands
VIKTORIA – Romania / Bulgaria / Director: Maya Vitkova
In 1979 an anomalous child with no belly button is born in Bulgaria. She's given the name Viktoria by her hapless parents, is immediately declared the Baby of the Decade by the nation's Communist leadership, and is pampered by the state until its inevitable collapse a decade later.
155 min. – Rating: MT
April 24 / 10:00am / a/perture 2 - $6
April 25 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
April 26 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION: The 2015 Documentary Competition includes plenty of social commentary on the issues that have impacted the world in recent years. From documentaries about controversial political cartoons, to contradictions in the American criminal justice system, the topics chronicled by these works are sure to spark interesting discussions. The films in the Documentary Competition are eligible for jury prizes and the Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.
3 ½ MINUTES – USA / Director Mark Silver
This gripping documentary dissects the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, the aftermath of this systemic tragedy and contradictions within the American criminal justice system.
85 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 7:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 20 / 8:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 21 / 2:00pm / Hanesbrands - $6
CARTOONISTS: FOOT SOLDIERS OF DEMOCRACY – France / Director: Stéphanie Valloatto
Twelve political cartoonists, spanning five continents, weigh in on their craft and discuss the finer points of defending democracy while armed with just a pencil and a smile.
106 min. – Rating: MT
April 22 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 24 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
April 25 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
THE CHINESE MAYOR – China / Director: Hao Zhou
Controversial Chinese politician Geng Yanbo demolished 140,000 households and relocated half a million people in order to restore ancient relic walls for the sake of the region's tourism industry. The film investigates one mayor's mission to save his city and uncovers the secret workings of China's Communist Party.
89 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 7:30PM / SECCA
April 18 / 10:00am / UNCSA-Gold
April 26 / 10:30am / a/perture 2
JOY OF MAN’S DESIRING – Canada / Director: Denis Côté
A visually enrapturing exploration of factory life, RiverRun alum Denis Côté's latest work weaves together realistic vignettes of factory life with sparse absurdist dialogue and a thundering soundtrack of machinery at work.
70 min. – Rating: MT
April 21/ 4:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 22 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
April 25 / 10:30am / a/perture 2
THE LOOK OF SILENCE – Denmark / Finland / Indonesia / Norway / UK / Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Through Joshua Oppenheimer’s work filming perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers the identities of the men who killed their son. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence, and so confronts the men responsible for his brother’s murder--something unimaginable in a country where killers remain in power.
99 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 7:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 19 / 10:30am / a/perture 2
STRAY DOG – USA / Director: Debra Granik
This cinema verite style documentary from RiverRun 2014 Emerging Master Debra Granik chronicles several years in the life of Ron “Stray Dog” Hall, a Vietnam vet that could be defined by his aficionado for motorcycles and moonshine, but becomes a multidimensional character through Granik’s truth-seeking lens.
98 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 1:00pm / Hanesbrands - $6
April 18 / 1:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
April 19 / 10:00am / UNCSA-Gold
THE TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER – UK / USA / Director:
Nick Broomfield digs into the case of the notorious serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper, who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of twenty-five years.
110 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 5:00pm / UNCSA - Babcock
April 23 / 2:00pm / Hanesbrands - $6
April 25 / 8:00pm / Hanesbrands
THIS TIME NEXT YEAR – USA / Directors: Jeff Reichert & Farihah Zaman
A moving account of Long Beach Island’s (NJ) rebuild after Hurricane Sandy’s destruction, This Time Next Year takes a closer look at what makes a community thrive after tragedy strikes, and details the personal accounts of those affected.
90 min. – Rating: TN
April 23 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 24 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
April 25 / 4:30pm / a/perture 2
WELCOME TO LEITH – USA / Michael Beach Nichols & Christopher Walker
In the tiny town of Leith, North Dakota, notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb is attempting a hostile takeover. Filmed in the days leading up to Cobb's arrest for terrorizing the townspeople, the film is an eerie document of American DIY ideals.
85 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 8:00pm / UNCSA – Babcock Theatre
April 20 / 5:00pm / SECCA
April 21 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
WHEN UNDER FIRE: SHOOT BACK! – Germany / South Africa / Director: Marc Wiese
70 min. – Ratng: MT
The Bang Bang Club were four fearless young photographers who set out to expose the reality of Apartheid in South Africa--a battle that changed a nation but wound up nearly destroying them in the process.
April 20 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
April 21 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 23 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS: This year, RiverRun’s non-competition Special Presentation section features a collection of stunning new films spanning all genres. RiverRun’s Special Presentation Screenings offer audiences an early glimpse of films destined for the multiplex.
OPENING NIGHT FILM #1
REALITY – France / Director: Quentin Dupieux
This French comedy starring Alain Chabat and supporting actor Jon Heder (Napolean Dynamite), follows an aspiring director who is given 48 hours by a producer to find a groan of pain that’s worthy of winning an award as the only condition to back his film
April 16 / 7:30pm / SECCA
OPENING NIGHT FILM #2
FRESH DRESSED – USA / Director: Sacha Jenkins
A chronicle of the history of hip-hop and urban fashion and its rise from Southern cotton plantations to the gangs of 1970s in the South Bronx, to corporate America, and everywhere in between.
90 min. – Rating: MT
April 16 / 7:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 17 / 5:00pm / UNCSA - Gold
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
MANGLEHORN – USA / Director: David Gordon Green
Starring Al Pacino and Holly Hunter, this tale profiles a strange and lonely locksmith struggling to come to terms with a past crime that cost him the love of his life.
97 min. – Rating: MT
April 26 / 7:30pm / UNCSA - Main
3 HEARTS – France / Germany / Belgium / Director: Benoît Jacquot
A touching and tense story of romantic destiny, 3 Hearts puts a unique spin on the classic love triangle when chance allows for two French sisters to fall in love with the same man--entirely unbeknownst to one another. Catherine Deneuve and Charlotte Gainsbourg star in this tale of two strangers who become forever bound by a profoundly fateful first encounter.
106 min. – Rating: PG-13
April 21 / 8:00pm / Hanesbrands
CUT BANK – USA / Director: Matt Shakman
A young man's life is unraveled after witnessing a murder that he filmed in his rural town of Cut Bank. The film features an all-star cast including Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Billy Bob Thornton, John Malkovich, Oliver Platt and Bruce Dern, among others.
93 min. – Rating: R for violence and language
April 20 / 8:00pm / SECCA
ELEPHANT SONG– Canada / Charles Binamé
A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague. Adapted for the screen from Nicolas Billon's play of the same name, the film stars Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener, Carrie-Anne Moss and RiverRun alum Xavier Dolan.
99 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 7:00pm / UNCSA-Main
April 19 / 4:30pm / UNCSA-Main
GEMMA BOVERY – France / Director: Anne Fontaine
In this vibrant re-imagining of Flaubert’s literary classic Madame Bovary, life imitates art in uncanny ways when earthy British beauty Gemma Bovery and her husband move to a charming old farmhouse in the very same Norman village where the novel was written a century earlier. Their new neighbor, local baker and Flaubert expert becomes entranced with Gemma and insinuates himself into her life.
99 min. – Rating: MT
April 24 / 7:30pm / SECCA
I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS – USA / Director: Brett Haley
Carol, a widow in her 70's, is forced to confront her fears about love, family, and death. After her routine is rattled she decides to start dating again and falls into relationships with two very different men. Starring Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott
95 min. – Rating: MT
April 25 / 7:30pm / UNCSA-Main
PEOPLE PLACES THINGS – USA / Director: Jim Strouse
A newly single Brooklyn father whose life is unraveling grapples with a painful separation, the custody of his twin daughters and finishing his latest graphic novel while trying to navigate new love in the funny and sad way that only an underemployed artist in Brooklyn can. Starring Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) and Jessica Williams (“The Daily Show”).
87 min. – Rating: MT
April 24 / 7:00pm / UNCSA - Main
SLOW WEST – UK / New Zealand / Director: John MacLean
In John Maclean's award-winning feature from this year's Sundance Film Festival, 16-year-old Jay embarks on an ill-advised journey across 19th Century frontier America in search of the woman he loves, while accompanied by a mysterious outlaw named Silas (Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender).
84 min. – Rating: R for violence and brief language
April 22 / 8:00pm / Hanesbrands
THE WOLFPACK – USA / Director: Crystal Moselle
Locked away from society in an apartment in Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed "The Wolfpack," the brothers spent their childhood reenacting their favorite films using elaborate homemade props and costumes. Their world is shaken up when one of the brothers escapes and everything changes.
80 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 7:30pm / UNCSA-Main
Spotlight on Black American Cinema 1971-1991: will present a six-film Spotlight on Black American Cinema from 1971-1991, exclusively featuring films directed by black filmmakers, in an effort to draw attention to their contributions and importance to American cinema as a whole. The films in this section include:
BOYZ N THE HOOD – USA / Director: John Singleton / Format: 35mm Print
The film debut for both Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut, this life-in-the-hood drama highlights a group of childhood friends as they struggle to either accept or deny the fate of their South Central LA upbringing. Also starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long and Angela Bassett. Nominated for an Academy Award® for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
112 min. – Rating: Rated R for language, violence and sensuality
April 26 / 1:30pm / UNCSA-Main
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST – USA / Director: Julie Dash
Set in 1902, this film takes a languid look at the Gullah culture of the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. African folkways were maintained well into the 20th Century in this isolated region, and it was one of the last bastions of these mores in America.
112 min. – Rating: MT
April 25 / 7:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE – USA / Director: Robert Townsend
An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer. As he makes his rounds, director and star Robert Townsend takes a satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood.
78 min. – Rating: R
April 24 / 7:30pm / UNCSA-Gold
KILLER OF SHEEP (playing with short film THE HORSE) – USA / Director: Charles Burnette
In this standout work of neorealism from Charles Burnett, a Watts, LA slaughterhouse worker must negotiate the neighborhood's retrograde influences and fight his own personal demons in order to keep from going under in the ghetto. Killer of Sheep is one of the first 50 films to be selected for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry and listed as one of the “100 Essential Films” by the National Society of Film Critics.
93 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 7:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
SHAFT – USA / Director: Gordon Parks
Private detective John Shaft is a bad mother--well, you know the rest--in this touchstone of the blaxploitation genre by director Gordon Parks, featuring a classic score by Isaac Hayes. Hired by a Harlem mobster to find his kidnapped daughter, Shaft will enlists the help of gangsters and African nationals to get the job done.
100 min. – Rating: R
April 17 / 7:30pm / UNCSA-Gold
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT – USA / Director: Spike Lee
An early Spike Lee joint, She's Gotta Have It gets personal with Nola Darling, who's having simultaneous sexual relationships with three different men. All three fellows want her to commit solely to them, though Nola resists being "owned" by a single partner.
86 min. – Rating: R
April 19 / 7:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
ALTERED STATES: NEW DIRECTIONS IN AMERICAN CINEMA: With technological breakthroughs and new distribution models rapidly democratizing the landscape of the motion picture industry, this program features a new wave of exciting, independent American filmmakers who are exploring new territory within the medium.
GOD BLESS THE CHILD – USA / Directors: Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck
Five siblings in Davis, California spend a day left to their own devices, uncertain whether their volatile and unreliable mother is really gone for good this time.
92 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
April 18 / 10:00am / a/perture 1
April 19 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1
HEART OF WILDERNESS – USA / Director: Towle Neu
Fleeing a local drug ring, Travis and Aimee must confront the secrets they keep while navigating the icy waters of the Minnesota wilderness.
84 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1
April 20 / 5:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 21 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
LAKE LOS ANGELES – USA / Director: Mike Ott
A ten-year-old girl being transported from Mexico and a middle-aged Cuban man who's resolved to protect her struggle to find one another again in the hostile desert backdrop that is Lake Los Angeles.
85 min. – Rating: MT
April 23 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
April 24 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 25 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1
PROUD CITIZEN – USA / Director: Thomas Southerland
After winning second place in a play writing contest, a Bulgarian woman travels to small town Kentucky for the premiere of her play. Expecting southern hospitality, she instead finds an America full of dichotomy in this funny, heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking meditation on the comfort (and discomfort) of strangers.
89 min. – Rating: TN
April 18 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2
April 19 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
April 20 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE – USA / Director: Perry Blackshear
Suspecting that people around him are turning into evil creatures, a troubled twenty-something questions whether to protect his only friend from an impending war or from himself in this inventive fusion of slacker comedy and end of days thriller.
81 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 4:00pm / Hanesbrands - $6
April 18 / 8:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
April 19 / 1:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
YOSEMITE – USA / Director: Gabrielle Demeestere
The lives of three 5th graders intertwine in the suburban paradise of Palo Alto circa 1985, as the threat of a mountain lion looms over the town. Featuring James Franco in a supporting role, the film is adapted from short stories in Franco's collection A California Childhood.
82 min. – Rating: TN
April 23 / 5:00pm / a/perture 2
April 24 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 25 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2
FOCUS: For the fourth year, RiverRun continues its non-competition sidebar, Focus, which features films of all shapes and sizes. Including films from emerging talents, RiverRun alums, veteran filmmakers and living legends alike, this section highlights a variety of film styles and stories, presenting a collection of some of our favorites.
120 DAYS – USA / Director: Ted Roach
Family man Miguel Cortes could be forced to leave the country in four months as a result of his immigration status. In exchange for agreeing to leave the country voluntarily--and paying a $5,000 bond--a judge gives him 120 days to work hard, save money and weigh his options about returning to Mexico alone, or risk changing his name and disappearing back into the crowd.
79 min. – Rating: TN
April 25 / 1:00pm / UNCSA-Main
April 26 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1
ABOVE ALL ELSE – USA / Director: John Fiege
One man risks his family and future to stop the tar sands of the Keystone XL pipeline from crossing his land. What begins as a stand against corporate bullying becomes a rallying cry for climate protesters nationwide, putting a human face on a complex case of social injustice, and revealing the intimate experience of creating social change at the grassroots level.
95 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 4:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 19 / 11:00am / UNCSA-Babcock
ALTHEA – USA / UK / Director: Rex Miller
In the 1940s and 50s, long before Arthur Ashe or the Williams sisters, Althea Gibson was the first African-American tennis player to become World Champion. Reintroducing the pioneering athlete to a new generation, Rex Miller’s bittersweet tribute reveals how a street kid from Harlem reached the pinnacle of an unlikely sport during the height of racial segregation.
83 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 7:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 19 / 4:00pm / Hanesbrands
ARCHIE’S BETTY – USA / Director: Gerald Peary
Film writer and documentarian Gerald Peary voyages to Haverhill, MA, where cartoonist Bob Montana developed the first drawings that would become the Archie Comics, to find out if Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and the rest of the Riverdale gang have real-life origins that can be traced to the town.
79 min. – Rating: TN
April 21 / 5:00pm / SECCA
April 22 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION – USA / Director: Stanley Nelson
Whether they were right or wrong, the Black Panther Party and its leadership remain powerful and enduring figures in our popular imagination even today. Stanley Nelson's film weaves together voices from varied perspectives who lived this story-- police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters, and detractors, those who remained loyal to the party and those who left it.
113 min. – Rating: MT
April 24 / 5:00pm / SECCA
April 25 / 10:00am / a/perture 1
CRU – USA / Director: Alton Glass
Best Film Award winner at the 2014 American Black Film Festival, CRU follows a quartet of formerly tight-knit high school athletes meeting up fifteen years later. The reunion opens up old wounds and reveals long hidden secrets stemming from a tragic car crash that forever changed their lives.
85 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 4:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
April 19 / 1:30pm / a/perture 2
CURIOUS WORLDS: THE ART & IMAGINATION OF DAVID BECK – USA / Director: Olympia Stone
David Beck’s mind-bogglingly intricate mechanized creations combine sculpture, painting, textiles, and woodworking on a scale that creates a genre all its own. Curious Worlds takes us into Beck’s universe to watch as he creates astonishingly detailed diorama scenes that inspire profound wonder and delight.
68 min. – Rating: TN
April 21 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 23 / 5:00pm / SECCA
THE DEAD LANDS – New Zealand / Director: Toa Fraser
After his tribe is wiped out through an act of treachery, a Maori chieftain's son must avenge their deaths in order to bring peace to the souls of his loved ones. He must first pass through the forbidden Dead Lands and forge an alliance with a mysterious loner who has terrorized the area for years in this thrilling martial arts battle royale.
108 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 10:00pm / a/perture 2
April 24 / 10:00pm / a/perture 1
DO I SOUND GAY? – USA / Director: David Thorpe
A smart, funny, and daring documentary about the stereoype of the "gay voice," Do I Sound Gay features insightful and entertaining interviews on the subject with Margaret Cho, Tim Gunn, Dan Savage, David Sedaris and George Takei, just to name a few.
77 min. – Rating: MT
April 22 / 4:00PM / a/perture 1 - $6
April 23 / 7:30PM / SECCA
FINDERS KEEPERS – USA / Directors: Bryan Carberry & J. Clay Tweel
In 2007, a severed human foot was discovered in a grill bought at a North Carolina auction. In this astonishing and bizarre documentary tale, it only gets stranger from there.
82 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 8:00pm / UNCSA – Babcock
April 21 / 7:30pm / SECCA
FLORE – France / Director: Jean-Albert Lièvre
Against the recommendations of all, a son removes his Alzheimer's-stricken mother from a nursing home to take her back to the island of Corsica where she previously lived. In the land that she loves she begins to make a surprising recovery.
92 min. – Rating: MT
April 23 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 26 / 10:00am / Hanesbrands
HIPPOCRATES – France / Director: Thomas Lilti
Recalling the vivid social realism of Laurent Cantet's Palme d'Or-winning The Class, Hippocrates follows a junior doctor as he strives to affect change in the hospital where his father calls the shots. When the realities of a shrinking budget and an overworked staff push him to his limits, Benjamin is forced to make a difficult decision that will impact the lives of everyone around him.
102 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 7:30pm / SECCA
April 22 / 4:30pm / a/perture 2 - $6
HOMELESS – USA / Director: Clay Hassler
Shot in Winston-Salem by filmmaker Clay Hassler, Homeless employs a direct cinema approach to great effect in telling the story of a troubled teen lost in the routine of life in a shelter. When his circumstances change for the better, something inside of him refuses to reconcile as he adapts to a new home, new friends and a more promising future.
92 min. – Rating: MT
April 25 / 7:30pm / SECCA
April 26 / 1:00pm / Hanesbrands
THE LONG START TO THE JOURNEY – USA / Director: Chris Galloway
Filmmaker Chris Gallaway documents his own personal attempt to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail and to learn what the path means to individuals he meets along the way. This is a personal story of struggle and perseverance as well as a historical account of the origins and cultural relevance of the Appalachian Trail.
70 min. – Rating: MT
April 23 / 8:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 24 / 10:30am / a/perture 1 - $6
MACONDO – Austria / Director: Sudabeh Mortezai
The world of Ramasan, an 11-year-old Chechnyan refugee living in Austria, is thrown into disarray when a friend of his deceased father randomly arrives in town. Living an already trying life in a tough neighborhood, Ramasan must now confront the legacy of the war hero father he barely remembers.
98 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 11:00am / UNCSA - Babcock
April 26 / 10:00am / UNCSA - Babcock
MAGICIAN: THE ASTONISHING LIFE AND WORK OF ORSON WELLES – USA / Director: Chuck Workman
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth, this captivating biography examines the remarkable genius of Orson Welles and the enigma of his larger than life career as a Hollywood star, a Hollywood director (for some a Hollywood failure), and a crucially important independent filmmaker.
94 min. – Rating: PG-13
April 17 / 10:00am / Hanesbrands - $6
April 22 / 7:30pm / SECCA
OUT IN THE NIGHT – USA / Director: Blair Doroshwalther
Under the neon lights in a gay-friendly neighborhood of New York City, four young African-American lesbians are violently and sexually threatened by a man on the street. Out in the Night recounts the story of the "Gang of Killer Lesbians" who were sentenced as criminals simply for defending themselves.
75 min. – Rating: MT
April 22 / 2:00pm / Hanesbrands - $6
April 25 / 5:00pm / SECCA
PATCHWORK FAMILY – France / Director: Pascal Rabaté
Christian is a reeling divorced father who only sees his young daughter Vanessa on weekends. When a popular reality TV triathlon comes to town, however, he sees the competition as a chance for redemption and lets it all hang out--figuratively and literally--in this charmingly oddball French comedy.
91 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 10:00am / a/perture 1
April 20 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
PATENT WARS – Germany / Director: Hannah Leonie Prinzler
Did you know that you can patent colors, numbers, plants and animals, and that 20 percent of your genes are patented and owned by corporations? In this creative investigation, filmmaker Hannah Prinzler uncovers who profits from intellectual property and who bears the economic and social consequences.
80 min. – Rating: MT
April 22 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
April 26 / 10:00am / a/perture 1
PLAYING HOOKY – USA / Director: Susan Gluth
In the retirement community of Sun City, Arizona, the colorful residents insist that "there is no utopia" and that "age is a lot of silence." The subjects at the core of RiverRun alum Susan Gluth's whimsical documentary are long-lived proof that getting old is not for sissies.
100 min. – Rating: MT
April 23 / 1:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 25 / 10:00am / UNCSA – Main Theatre
POVERTY, INC. – USA / Director: Michael Matheson Miller
From disaster relief to TOMs Shoes, from adoptions to agricultural subsidies, Poverty, Inc. follows the butterfly effect of our most well-intentioned efforts and explores the hidden side of doing good. Are we catalyzing development or are we propagating a system in which the poor stay poor while the rich get hipper?
94 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 5:00pm / SECCA
April 19 / 10:00am / Hanesbrands
SEX(ED) – USA / Director: Brenda Goodman
Remember how you learned about sex? Sex(Ed): The Movie captures the humor, shock and vulnerability people face when learning about the birds and bees through the lens of the often hilarious, only sometimes informative sex-ed films produced from 1910 to the present day.
77 min. – Rating: MT
April 24 / 8:00pm / UNCSA- Babcock
April 25 / 5:00pm / Hanesbrands
SHE’S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE’S ANGRY – USA / Director: Mary Dore
The brilliant, often outrageous women who founded the feminist movement of the 1960s proclaimed that "the personal is political" and made a revolution--in the bedroom, in the workplace, and in all spheres of life. Labeled as threatening by the FBI yet often dismissed in history books, these radical women changed the world.
92 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 4:00pm / a/perture 1 - $6
April 18 / 7:00pm / a/perture 1
THE TRIBE – USA / Director: Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
Winner of multiple Cannes Film Festival awards, The Tribe is an undeniably original and intensely jarring film set in the insulated world of a Ukranian high school for the deaf. Utilizing no spoken dialogue or subtitles, the film builds upon non-verbal acting and sign language from a cast of deaf, non-professional actors to a shocking conclusion.
130 min. – Rating: MT
April 17 / 7:30pm / a/perture 2
April 19 / 4:30pm / a/perture 2
FILMS WITH CLASS: RiverRun’s year-round FILMS WITH CLASS program gives area teachers the opportunity to expose their students to Festival films. During the Festival, students attend and participate in private screenings with the filmmakers and special guests. Then, throughout the school year, RiverRun brings films into classrooms to help enrich and enhance school curriculum. Sponsored by Wells Fargo
THE AVIATRIX – UK / Director: Annette Porter
Eighty-five years after the groundbreaking Lady Heath became the first person to fly solo from Africa to England, one woman sets off to re-fly the adventure in her vintage open cockpit biplane in order to honor the memory and legacy of her accomplishment.
78 min. – Rating: TN
April 22 / 5:00pm / SECCA
THE OPPOSITE FIELD – USA/ Uganda / Director: Jay Shapiro
A love letter to the game of baseball from the place you'd least expect, Opposite Field is the true story of the first African team to play in the Little League World Series. Filmmaker Jay Shapiro follows a group of Ugandan boys as they learn to embrace America's pastime, giving the people of their poverty-stricken land something to cheer for in the process.
100 min. – Rating: TN
April 21 / 5:00pm / Hanesbrands
TOUCHING THE SOUND: THE IMPROBABLE JOURNEY OF NOBUYUKI TSUJII – USA / Director: Peter Rosen
Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, blind since birth, has become a symbol of hope for all those with disabilities because of the hurdles he overcame to master his craft. Touching the Sound follows Nobuyuki--better known as Nobu by his fans--on his world travels as an ambassador both for his country and for the power of music.
68 min. – Rating: TN
April 18 / 1:00pm / Hanesbrands – Accessibility Screening
April 23 / 5:00pm / Hanesbrands
FROM THE ARCHIVES: RiverRun has long put an emphasis on showcasing films from archives around the world. This year, as an added bonus for audiences, no admission will be charged for the films in the 2015 From the Archives section. All five films will be presented free to audiences.
ARCHIVE DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
In celebrating RiverRun's recent designation as an Academy Award-qualifying festival in the Documentary Short category, the Academy Film Archives has collaborated with us in assembling this compilation of nominated shorts from Oscar ceremonies gone by. Preservation by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
107 min. – Rating: MT
April 26 / 2:00pm / UNCSA-Gold - FREE
DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES – UK / West Germany / Director: Terence Davies
The second film in British auteur Terence Davies' autobiographical series, Distant Voices, Still Lives is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool. Based on Davies' own family, the film is an affecting photo album of a troubled family wrestling with the complexity of love. From the collection of the UNCSA Moving Image Archives.
85 min. – Rating: PG-13
April 25 / 2:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock - FREE
MANTRAP – USA / Director: USA / Victor Fleming
Clara Bow stars as a sexy young manicurist torn between her husband and another man in this early work from director Victor Fleming, most well known for helming classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind.” Preserved by the Library of Congress.
86 min. – Rating: TN
April 17 / 5:30pm / UNCSA-Babcock - FREE
A PAGE OF MADNESS – USA / Director: A man takes a job at a mental asylum to care for his wife after she tries to kill their child in this stunning, avant garde standout of Japanese cinema from the silent era. From the collection of George Eastman House.
70 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 4:00pm / UNCSA-Gold - FREE
THE WILD BUNCH – USA / Director: Sam Peckinpah
Sam Peckinpah's revisionist Western masterpiece follows an aging group of outlaws looking for one last big score as the traditional American West is disappearing around them. The film features iconic performances from William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates and many more. From the collection of the UNCSA Moving Image Archives.
145 min. – Rating: R
April 19 / 10:30am / UNCSA- Main - FREE
SHORTS: The Festival will again present the competitive Documentary, Narrative, and Animated Shorts sections. Since RiverRun is now an Oscar®-qualifying festival for animated and documentary shorts, the top jury prize winners in those two categories will both be eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award®. RiverRun will also feature special selections of North Carolina Shorts this year. This program will screen some of the best short films received from N.C. filmmakers this year in two different programs, while giving attendees a chance to support local artists.
Animated Shorts 1
89 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 1:30pm / UNCSA-Main
April 24 / 5:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
Animated Shorts 2
91 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 1:30pm / UNCSA-Main
April 25 / 1:30pm / UNCSA-Gold
Doc Shorts 1
103 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 2:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
April 24 / 5:30pm / UNCSA-Babcock
Doc Shorts 2
108 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 2:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
April 25 / 10:30am / UNCSA-Gold
Late Night Shorts
115 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 9:30pm / a/perture 1
April 25 / 9:30pm / a/perture 1
Narrative Shorts 1
97 min. – Rating: MT
April 18 / 4:00pm / UNCSA-Gold
April 25 / 11:00am / UNCSA-Babcock
Narrative Shorts 2
103 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 5:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
April 25 / 5:00pm / UNCSA-Babcock
NC Shorts 1
109 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 4:00pm / SECCA
April 24 / 3:30pm / Hanesbrands - $6
NC Shorts 2
86 min. – Rating: MT
April 19 / 7:00pm / SECCA
April 24 / 7:15pm / Hanesbrands
NARRATIVE SHORTS 1
April 5 / 10:00am / UNCSA - Gold
April 12 / 11:00am / UNCSA - Babcock
NARRATIVE SHORTS 2
April 6 / 4:00pm / UNCSA - Gold
April 12 / 4:00pm / UNCSA - Gold
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS 1
April 5 / 11:00am / UNCSA - Babcock
April 12 / 1:30pm / UNCSA - Main
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS 2
April 6 / 11:00am / UNCSA - Babcock
April 12 / 5:00pm / UNCSA - Babcock
NC SHORTS 1
April 6 / 1:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 11 / 3:30pm / Hanesbrands - $6
NC SHORTS 2
April 6 / 4:00pm / Hanesbrands
April 11 / 6:30pm / Hanesbrands
ANIMATED SHORTS
April 5 / 5:00pm / UNCSA - Babcock
April 12 / 2:00pm / UNCSA - Babcock
Also returning are the wildly popular Saturday Morning Cartoons, a series of family-friendly animated shorts that include many sweet tales to delight the younger filmgoers at the Festival.
SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS– INTENDED FOR CHILDREN AGES 8 & UP
58 min. – Rating: FM
April 18 / 10:00am / Hanesbrands - FREE
April 25 / 10:00am / Hanesbrands - FREE
Sponsored by Salem Smiles Orthodontics
PANELS / PARTIES
Opening Gala Presented by PNC Bank
April 17 / 9:00pm / Millennium Center
NC Filmmakers Panel
April 19 / 1:00pm / a/perture 3 - FREE
Everything But the Burden: Black Film and the Politics of Representation Panel
April 21 / 7:00pm / Winston-Salem State University – Diggs Gallery – FREE
Spotlight Conversation with Charles Burnett & Robert Townsend
April 20 / 6:00pm / Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts – Mountcastle Forum – FREE
Pitch Fest & Panel
April 24 / 10:00am / Hanesbrands - FREE
Conversation with Stanley Nelson (Master of Cinema)
April 24 / 2:00pm / Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts – Mountcastle Forum – FREE
Conversation with Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Emerging Masters)
April 25 / 1:00pm / Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts – Mountcastle Forum – FREE
TICKETS AND INFO: RiverRun’s popular Ticket Samplers, which include 10 film vouchers for the price of nine, are now on sale at the Stevens Center Box Office. RiverRun members may also purchase advance tickets on March 18, 2015, prior to public sales. For more information about the many benefits of becoming a RiverRun member, visit
www.riverrunfilm.com/donate. General tickets go on sale March 19, 2015, at the Stevens Center Box Office, via
www.riverrunfilm.com or over the phone at (336)‐721-1945.
SPONSORS: The sponsors of the 2015 RiverRun International Film Festival help sustain the organization's mission to foster a greater appreciation of cinema and a deeper understanding of the many people, cultures and perspectives of our world through regular interaction with great films and filmmakers. Festival sponsors include: Title Sponsors – The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, Reynolds American, and The University of North Carolina School of the Arts; Presenting Sponsors – City of Winston-Salem, Millennium Fund and Winston-Salem Journal; Marquee Sponsors – Elephant in the Room, Hanesbrands Inc., John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation, PNC Bank, Salem Smiles Orthodontics, Wake Forest University and Wells Fargo; Premiere Sponsors –High Point Bank, JDL Castle Corporation, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, Mast General Store, the National Endowment for the Arts, News & Record, Visit Winston-Salem, and Yes! Weekly.
ABOUT RIVERRUN: The RiverRun International Film Festival is a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to the role of cinema as a conduit of powerful ideas and diverse viewpoints. Founded in 1998, RiverRun is a competitive event that annually showcases new films from both established and emerging filmmakers around the world. Each spring, RiverRun screens new narrative, documentary, short, student and animated films, offering both audience and jury prizes in competition categories."
- A Press Release
