2012 Trenton International Film Festival

In Paris, Bernadette gave everything to her daughters. Nothing is ever enough for them.  Elza completes her master’s degree in maths, summa cum laude.  She’s the first college graduate of the family, a wonderful present for her mother who expects even more from her elder: a PHD.  But Elza ruins her mother’s happiness when she leaves against her wish to the Island of Guadeloupe looking for the father that’s she’s never met. Elza takes us with passion and perseverance in this lush island of light that holds many surprises.

Famous sommelier Charlie Arturaola arrives in Argentina to take part in the glamorous event “Masters of Food and Wine.”  Before his scheduled tasting, he inexplicably  “loses his palate.”  Charlie desperately needs to recover his sense of taste.  In the search of a solution for his problem, he follows the advice of one of the world’s leading wine experts and sets out on a journey to “wash” his palate with best wines of the region. He visits huge wineries and small vineyards alike, getting closer with the people of the villages who work the vine–and  further from the glamorous and stress-laden life he’s been pursuing for years.  “The ways of the wine” oscillates between comedy and drama–the compelling story of a man  who got lost because of his desire to belong to a world other than his own.

Official Selection of the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival.

The story of Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the core of Burma’s (Myanmar) democracy movement, and her relationship with her husband, writer Michael Aris. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. A story of devotion and human understanding set against a background of political turmoil which continues today. The Lady also is the story of the peaceful quest of the woman who is at the core of Burma’s democracy movement.

8:00 p.m.
Sound of Noise

Directors: Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjarne Nilsson
Sweden/France, 2010/102 min.  Swedish with English subtitles
Comedy/Crime/Music

Police officer Amadeus Warnebring was born into a musical family with a long history of famous musicians.  Ironically, he hates music.  His life is thrown into chaos when a band of crazy musicians decides to perform a musical apocalypse using the city as their orchestra… Reluctantly, Warnebring embarks on his first musical investigation.

Sunday, November 11th

1:30 p.m.
Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years, 1984 to 1992

Director: Dagmar Schultz, in cooperation with Ika Hügel-Marshall and Ria Cheatom
German, 2012/84 min. English and German w/English subtitles
Documentary

Audre Lorde, the highly influential, award winning African-American lesbian poet came to live in West-Berlin in the 1980s.  During her stay as a visiting professor, she was the mentor and catalyst who ignited the Afro-German movement. Lorde also had a decisive impact on white women, challenging them to acknowledge the significance of their white privilege and learning to deal with difference in constructive ways.

3:30 p.m.
Sita Sings the Blues

Director: Nina Paley
USA, 2008/ 91 min. English.
Animation

Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama.  Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email.  Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920′s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as “the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.”