William & Mary 2020 Film Festival

by Josh Williams

The 2020 William & Mary Global Film Festival will showcase a number of globally recognized films at the historic Kimball Theatre as well as The Tucker Theater for its 13th annual event, Jan. 30 – Feb. 2.  Since 2008, the four-day festival has afforded the Williamsburg Virginia community and the College of William and Mary to screen international, student, and alumni-produced films, plus enjoy live performances, presentations, guest filmmakers and industry experts, and receptions. (link) The event has grown each year brining in thousands of film lovers.

The event will also include workshops, receptions and an extensive lineup of special guests, including William & Mary alumni David Crank ’82, production designer for Golden Globe-nominated mystery comedy “Knives Out”; Joe Pirro ’08, producer of the film “Driveways”; and Jeffrey Tinnell ’85, producer of “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” 

The event is sponsored by the WM Reves Center for International Studies, the City of Williamsburg, the Muscarelle Museum of Art, William & Mary Libraries and others. Canon will also be returning as a sponsor this year where they generously provide state-of-the-art cameras for the Reeder Media Center and the photography curriculum at William & Mary.

Tickets are now available for all programming.

2019 FULL SCHEDULE AND SHOWTIMES Read up on the writers, directors, producers, and other guests who are attending or join a session in the free professional workshop series

Kimball Theatre | Jan.30th

MOVIE INFO & TICKETS
Thursday, Jan 30, 1:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10
Ticket includes a pre-show reception in the theater lobby, featuring food and beverages starting at 12:15 PM

ABOUT THE FILM
Nezha is birthed from a heavenly pearl by the Primeval Lord of Heaven. Born with unique powers, he finds himself as an outcast who is hated and feared. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the young boy must choose between good and evil in order to break the shackles of fate and become a hero.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Thursday, Jan 30, 7:30 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10

 

ABOUT THE FILM
Be it chance or fate, two households – one fabulously wealthy and the other destitute – are brought together. Their symbiotic relationship is quickly threatened by greed and a secret battle for dominance. This thrilling dark comedy offers a unique examination of social and economic inequalities.


Kimball Theatre | Jan.31ST

MOVIE INFO & TICKETS
Thursday, Jan 30, 1:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10
Ticket includes a pre-show reception in the theater lobby, featuring food and beverages starting at 12:15 PM

ABOUT THE FILM
Nezha is birthed from a heavenly pearl by the Primeval Lord of Heaven. Born with unique powers, he finds himself as an outcast who is hated and feared. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the young boy must choose between good and evil in order to break the shackles of fate and become a hero.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Friday, Jan 31, 3:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $5

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY
In Mexico City, the government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances for a population of 9 million. This has spawned an underground industry of for-profit ambulances often run by people with little or no training or certification. An exception in this ethically fraught, cutthroat industry, the Ochoa family struggles to keep their financial needs from jeopardizing the people in their care. When a crackdown by corrupt police pushes the family into greater hardship, they face increasing moral dilemmas even as they continue providing essential emergency medical services.

MOVIE INFO & TICKETS
Thursday, Jan 30, 1:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10
Ticket includes a pre-show reception in the theater lobby, featuring food and beverages starting at 12:15 PM

ABOUT THE FILM
Nezha is birthed from a heavenly pearl by the Primeval Lord of Heaven. Born with unique powers, he finds himself as an outcast who is hated and feared. Destined by prophecy to bring destruction to the world, the young boy must choose between good and evil in order to break the shackles of fate and become a hero.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Friday, Jan 31, 8:30 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10
Featuring a pre-show performance by the W&M Middle Eastern Music Ensemble starting at 8:10 PM

SPONSORED BY THE W&M ARTS & SCIENCES ANNUAL FUND

ABOUT THE FILM
A small Gulf fishing village’s livelihood is dependent on sea creatures. To stay in the creatures’ favor, they must sacrifice female children to the sea. One girl jeopardizes the community’s fortunes when she rejects her fate and refuses to be sacrificed. What follows challenges both the community’s patriarchal culture and the young girl’s self image.

Kimball Theatre | Feb 1ST

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Saturday, Feb 1, 10:00 AM, Kimball Theatre
This is a free, unticketed event. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

SPONSORED BY THE TRIANGLE ARTS & CULTURE LEAGUE

ABOUT THE FILM
Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle, nothing could prepare Dora for her most dangerous adventure yet – high school. Accompanied by a ragtag group of teens and Boots the monkey, Dora embarks on a quest to save her parents while trying to solve the seemingly impossible mystery behind a lost Incan civilization.

DORA AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD

williamsburg virginia film festival Dora

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Saturday, Feb 1, 12:15 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10

SPONSORED BY THE WILLIAMSBURG COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

ABOUT THE FILM
December 23, 1983: Just days before Christmas, the Oliverio family readies their Feast of the Seven Fishes, an Italian tradition stretching back to the old country of Calabria. Amidst the preparations, Tony Oliverio, a young man with big dreams and a bigger heart, wonders if he’ll find love this Christmas season or spend it alone with his loud and loving family.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Saturday, Feb 1, 3:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY
Gerrymandering, the process of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts to favor one party, offers our country’s politicians an easy way to sway elections. This documentary follows two cases of everyday people fighting against the system. Katie Fahey, a young Mischigander, organizes a grassroots campaign to get a measure on the state’s ballot that would require an independent group – not the legislature – to draw district lines. In Wisconsin, an activist group challenges the state’s redistricting in a case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

SLAY THE DRAGON

williamsburg virgina film festival Slay-The-Dragon

DEVOTCHKA PRESENTS MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Saturday, Feb 1, 8:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $25

ABOUT THE FILM
Part documentary and part cinematic art, this film follows a city in the 1920s Soviet Union throughout the day, from morning to night without titles or narration. Director Dziga Vertov celebrates the modernity of the city, with its vast buildings, dense population and bustling industries through a variety of complex and innovative camera shots.

 

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Saturday, Feb 1, 10:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $5

ABOUT THE FILM
A woman who uses her bureaucratic job to convince divorcing couples to stay together is utterly committed to getting pregnant by her husband in a future of dance parties, ritualistic orgies and fundamentalist Christianity.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Saturday, Feb 1, 3:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY
Gerrymandering, the process of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts to favor one party, offers our country’s politicians an easy way to sway elections. This documentary follows two cases of everyday people fighting against the system. Katie Fahey, a young Mischigander, organizes a grassroots campaign to get a measure on the state’s ballot that would require an independent group – not the legislature – to draw district lines. In Wisconsin, an activist group challenges the state’s redistricting in a case that goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

SLAY THE DRAGON

williamsburg virgina film festival Slay-The-Dragon

Kimball Theatre | Feb. 2nd

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Sunday, Feb 2, 11:15 AM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $5

ABOUT THE FILM
Bacurau, a small village in future Brazil, notices that their village has literally vanished from most maps. There seem to be forces that want to expel people from their homes. The townspeople band together in response, using any means necessary to protect and maintain their remote community.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Sunday, Feb 2, 2:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $10
Featuring a pre-show performance by David Gussman ’86, World Accordion Music starting at 1:40 PM

ABOUT THE FILM
France, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as they share Héloïse’s first moments of freedom. Héloïse’s portrait soon becomes a collaborative act of and testament to their love.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Sunday, Feb 2, 4:30 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $5

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY
Four high-school students, Na’Kerria, Jocabed, Junior, and BJ, embark on their senior year in Pahokee, a small Florida town on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. The teens navigate all of the sometimes exciting, sometimes heartbreaking rite-of-passage rituals as they make profound decisions about their futures. As they do, the pressure of Pahokee’s economic hardships weighs heavily on their shoulders—the community has placed all hopes for opportunity on them, the next generation.

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Sunday, Feb 2, 7:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $5

ABOUT THE FILM
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.


Tucker Theatre | Jan.30th

FACULTY CURATED SHORTS

Thursday, January 30, 5:00 PM

The Mortician of Manila
2019, UK and Philippines, 25 minutes, Not Rated, Tagalog and English with Subtitles
With an introduction from Francis Tanglao Aguas, Professor of World Theatre and Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies

Filipino mortician Orly manages and lives at a 24-hour funeral home, where he has a sobering perspective on the lives impacted by President Duterte’s “war on drugs.”

The Choice
2018, USA, 7 minutes, Not Rated, English
Written, Produced, and Co-Directed by Desiree Cooper
With an introduction by Hermine Pinson, W&M Professor of English

One in four American women will have an abortion over a lifetime. That’s double the number of women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer in a lifetime (one in eight). Yet, this staple of women’s reproductive health care remains shrouded in taboo and stigma. In this work of fiction, each line tells a different woman’s story, showing the complicated feelings and circumstances that surround abortion from the point of view of women.

Writer/Producer/Co-Director Desiree Cooper will be present for a Q&A following the screening.

About Desiree Cooper
Desiree Cooper is a 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, former attorney and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist. Her debut collection of flash fiction, Know the Mother, is a 2017 Michigan Notable Book that has won numerous awards, including 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award. Cooper’s fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in The Best Small Fictions 2018, CallalooMichigan Quarterly Review, Hypertext ReviewBest African American Fiction 2010, and a notable mention in The Best American Essays 2019.  In 2018, she wrote, produced and co-directed The Choice, a short film about reproductive rights and recipient of a 2019 Outstanding Achievement Award from the Berlin Flash Film Festival, and Award of Merit from the Best Short Film Festival in Los Angeles. Cooper collaborated with the Dance Department at The College William & Mary to create a dance “Aloft” inspired by her feminist fiction which debuted in October, 2018.

Tucker Theatre | Jan.31st

ALUMNI SHORTS

Saturday, February 31, 4:00 PM

Milk Money
2019, USA, 16 minutes
Written & Directed by Jimmy Nguyen ’05

Gordon, a directionless young man, helps out on his parents’ struggling Virginia dairy farm.  When his adopted Korean brother Leon comes home from college, sibling rivalry and desperation pushes Gordon to execute a brazen plan to save the family farm.

Executive Assistant
2015, USA, 14 minutes
Written & Directed by Kate Reed Petty ’06

A recent college graduate struggles to complete a freelance job for a cryptic client. 

Kate Reed Petty ’06 will be present for a Q&A following the screening.

Gig Economy: Gogo Dancer
2019, USA, 10 minutes
Produced by Aaron Barksdale ‘13

Mariano Rubin De Celis supports himself by working as a set designer by day and a go-go dancer at night dancing at some of the hottest nightclubs and events in New York City.

Aaron Barksdale ‘13 will be present for a Q&A following the screening.

Tomorrow’s Party
2009, USA, 8 minutes
Written & Directed by Elissa Cohn ‘05
Cinematography by Lauretta Prevost ‘05

Have you ever been in love?

I’m Sorry
2013, USA, 3 minutes
Produced by Elissa Cohn ‘05

I’m sorry.

Lost City
2020, USA, 15 minutes
Unofficial pre-release screening
Written, Directed, and Produced by Max Cea ’15

When a pizza-loving Nigerian tourist gets lost on his way to see a New York comedy show, his night takes several unexpected turns.

Wired
2019, USA, 2 minutes
Directed & Edited by Ted Hogeman ‘09

A man grapples with a difficult choice.

First Contact Worst Contact
2019, USA, 5 minutes
Directed & Edited by Ted Hogeman ‘09
Camera by Chris Mariles ‘12
Featuring Brian Terrill ‘12 and Zan Gillies ‘09

A crew of explorers encounters the unknown at the edge of the known universe.

Ted Hogeman ‘09 will be present for a Q&A following the screening.

Tucker Theatre | Feb. 1st

STRAY DOLLS

williamsburg virginia film festival StrayDolls

Saturday, February 1, 2:00 PM
2019, USA, 97 minutes, Not Rated, English and Nepali
Featuring: Geetanjali Thapa, Olivia DeJonge, Cynthia Nixon
With a video introduction from Writer / Director Sonejuhi Sinha ‘04

Riz, a recent immigrant and ex-gang member, works at a motel in hopes of starting her life over in America. At the motel, Riz’s assertive runaway roommate Dallas blackmails her, triggering a series of violent events entwining all of the motel residents.

This film will include an introductory video message from Writer / Director Sonejuhi Sinha ‘04, exclusive to this pre-release screening.

Friday, January 31, 7:30 PM
2008, USA, 112 minutes, R, English
Written by Mark Richard

His tour of duty in Iraq finally over, Staff Sgt. Brandon King returns home to Brazos, Texas, ready to re-enter civilian life. Unexpectedly, the Army invokes a clause in Brandon’s military contract, requiring him to return to active duty in Iraq. With the help of close friend Michele, Brandon goes AWOL and struggles to find a way out of the dilemma.

Writer Mark Richard will be present for an introduction and post-screening Q&A.

Tucker Theatre | Feb. 1st

SCREENING INFO & TICKETS
Sunday, Feb 2, 7:00 PM, Kimball Theatre
Tickets – $5

ABOUT THE FILM
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.

Tucker Theater programming features films presented by W&M alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Tickets are not required for these screenings, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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