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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, April 3, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 2, 2005 Ashland Independent Film Festival offers a variety of treasures Areviewer can’t possibly see all the pictures in the 2005 Ashland Independent Film Festival, but then, neither can filmgoers. What follows, then, are thumbnail reviews of some notable films. YOU EXPECT ASHLAND in an indie picture, but Medford? Yup, there are all these Medford locations in the beautifully shot "Wow and Flutter" (17 minutes, shows at 9:30 a.m. Sunday), a tender portrait of a 14-year-old boy ably played by Ethan Moskowitz of Ashland. This is a polished picture that tunes into the heartbreak of growing up. Written and directed by Gary Lundgren, it features tasty sound design by David Raines and a scene of parental injustice designed to make your blood boil. HORRIFIED ATTHESTATE of the world and troubled by unsettling dreams, filmmaker Velcrow Ripper leaves his comfortable home on a Canadian island on a five-year spiritual odyssey that leads to "ScaredSacred" (104 minutes, shows at 3 p.m. today and Sunday), a tour of the world’s ground zeroes. In Bhopal, he films survivors of the deadly Union Carbide explosion that killed thousands. He finds people who, in a globalizing world, are no longer producers and are too poor to be consumers. Advertisement "We have a right to live," one says. In Phnom Penh, Ripper visits Pol Pot’s killing fields and meets a man who devotes his life to finding and disarming the millions of mines that remain in the countryside at the rate of 50 or more a day. In Bosnia, a woman tells him, "It was normal to see dead people." In Hiroshima on the 55th anniversary of the American atom bombing of that city, Ripper meets survivors who release paper lanterns into the river like little illuminated prayers. He documents, before the fall of the Taliban, underground schools for Afghan girls run by women risking their lives. In Poland he visits the mother of all places of annihilation, Auschwitz. Somehow, all this is not morbid. It is a bombast-free zone narrated by Ripper in an understated way that will make you think of David Byrne without the irony. Ripper’s camera finds the telling detail, like rain falling on serene Buddhas. From these places of unimaginable suffering Ripper finds a transformative moment, a sense of vulnerability, of no separateness. This is a profoundly moving picture. That’s not to say it’s perfect. It is self-indulgent and a bit long and could have used a firmer hand at the editing console. In the end, though, Ripper says, whatever comes our way, we don’t lose the freedom to respond. CELEBRITY TENNIS, the nature of friendship and the battle of the sexes are the targets of "Tennis, Anyone...?" (100 minutes, shows at 6 p.m. today and 9 p.m. Monday). Donal Logue is hilarious as Danny Macklin, a B-list actor who’s found some success on a TV sitcom but struggles with three relationships: his bitchy wife, an implacable enemy and a tennis buddy who just might be a life coach. The picture drifts a bit, and has trouble deciding whether to be a comedy or a drama. But the acting is good and the satire is sharp. WHAT IF YOU could pawn your soul? That’s the premise of "The Pawn" (10 minutes, shows at 3:40 p.m. Monday), a Faustian little short that also asks what your faith is worth. Surreal and visually involving. Be sure you don’t lose your ticket. HOW SWEET is revenge? In "Anna and the Soldier" (10 minutes, shows at 3:40 p.m. Monday), a young Italian woman confronts a German soldier who seems to have taken part in the massacre of her family in 1944. Thoughtful and punchy. A MAN OBSESSED with Civil War re-enactment pays a heavy price in "The Lost Cause" (12 minutes, shows at 9:30 p.m. today, 12:30 p.m. Sunday). The focus is a father-son relationship, and the levels of irony are only hinted at in the title. Killer ending. A LONELY GUY looking for love is the subject of "Joe Blow" (4 minutes, shows at 6 p.m. today and 9 p.m. Monday), the latest from Portland filmmaker Mark Gustafson. The claymation is astounding. Cute, and probably best for adults. JUST WHEN you think you’ve seen the festival’s best documentary of the year (the award-winning"Born into Brothels," or maybe "ScaredSacred"), along comes "The Loss of Nameless Things" (103 minutes, shows at 3:40 p.m. today, 9:40 p.m. Monday). If the title "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" had not been taken by author Dave Eggers, it would fit here. The staggering genius is Oakley Hall III, a charismatic enfant terrible 1970s playwright whose kiss by genius left stardust all over him. The heartbreak was a tragic fall that left him brain-damaged and unable to work. A major on-camera source is Oregon Shakespeare Festival actor Michael J. Hume, a compatriot of the young Hall. An epic story made with an incredible eye by Bill Rose. If there’s such a thing as must-see cinema, this is it. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Fasa Advertisement s