Heartland Film Fest: A day-by-day guide
by NUVO Editors
Opening night: Oct. 18, 7:30 p.m. @ Indianapolis Museum of Art, $35
Screening of High Ground; producer Don Hahn and veterans featured in film scheduled to attend
Ed's review: A group of wounded warriors, veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, plus the mother of one of the fallen, set off to climb a mountain — 20,000 foot Mount Lobuche in the Himalayas. The group represents nearly every branch of the military and a wide range of physical and emotional scars — one of the climbers is blind. There’s a great deal of trauma among the climbers, and their stories and reactions to the expedition are fascinating and moving. I wish the filmmakers had focused a bit more on the intricacies of the climb, but that’s just a quibble.
Opening night screenings: Oct. 19 @ AMC Castleton Square 14, prices vary
A showcase for all Festival Award-winning films, with most filmmakers in attendance for post-film Q&As
Tim Irwin (Heartland artistic director): “If someone had only one day to do stuff, I'd say, 'Go to Castleton on the 19th.'”
Awards ceremony: Oct. 20, 8 p.m. @ Old National Centre, $100
Awards presented for Grand Prize winners of narrative and documentary features and Vision Award winner for best short; followed by party
Reel Conversations: Oct. 21, 11 a.m. @ Omni Severin Hotel, $25
A meet-and-greet brunch with Heartland filmmakers followed by a Q&A
Louise Henderson (head documentary programmer): “By this point the filmmakers are settled in; they had a great time the night before, and they've done some screenings and gotten audience feedback. The filmmakers do this expanded Q&A with a lot of audience input. It's kind of like the best-kept secret of Heartland.”
Family Movie Event: Oct. 21, 2 p.m. @ AMC Castleton Square 14, $10
World premiere of 3 Day Test, directed by Corbin Bernsen, who plans to attend
Henderson: “This is Corbin Bernsen's third film in three years at Heartland. The first year he came I got to see him when he arrived at the Canterbury Hotel, and he kind of had his hackles up. But once he relaxed and realized that we were not going to have the media following him and that we were just really nice, by the filmmaker's brunch, he was wearing his flannel shirt and jeans.”
A night with Jack Hanna: Oct. 22, 7 p.m. @ Pike Performing Arts Center, $12
Jack Hanna, accompanied by his animal friends, will present the Festival Award-winning film Rising from Ashes
Irwin: “We got this email from the filmmakers a couple weeks back, and they said, 'Um, Jack Hanna really, really likes Rwanda and would like to introduce the film and maybe bring some furry friends along.' So it'll be Jack introducing the film with an animal, and then doing a Q&A with the filmmakers afterwards, with a couple animals.”
Ed's review: A rich, engrossing documentary that follows cycling legend Jock Boyer as he moves to Rwanda and ends up forming a national bike racing team. Boyer’s quest is interesting, but the stories of the team members, part of a culture still reeling from the 1994 genocide within their homeland, are far more compelling. Young men who have lived close to their rural homes suddenly become celebrities traveling the world. How do they deal with all the abrupt changes? How do the folks back home deal with the new (and presumed wealthy) celebrities in their midst? Fascinating stuff.
Closing night: Oct. 27, 7 p.m. @ Indianapolis Museum of Art, $15
Screening of Under African Skies, a documentary revisiting Paul Simon's Graceland album; followed by a party at The Jazz Kitchen (9:30 p.m., $15, ticket for both events is $25)
Henderson: “There's a lot of buzz around Under African Skies. So many people have memories of the Graceland album, and I love that it puts it in the political context of the time. It's not just fluff; Joe Berlinger, the filmmaker, is known for making hard-hitting documentaries, like Paradise Lost.”
Just the facts
Submissions: 1240 films (up from 858 in 2011)
Films: 118
Screening locations: Oct. 19-27 @ AMC Castleton Square 14 (6020 E. 82nd St.); Oct. 20-27 @ AMC Showplace Traders Point 12 (5920 W. 86th St.); special events at additional locations; complete festival guide at trulymovingpictures.org
Ticket prices: $8 online (trulymovingpictures.org), $10 at theater; bulk options available
Grand prizes: $100,00 for best narrative feature, $25,000 for best documentary feature, $10,000 for best short film
Festival Award-winning narrative features (finalists for $100,000 grand prize): A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (France/Israel); Cairo 768 (Egypt); Future Weather (USA); Starry, Starry Night (Taiwan/China); Valley of Saints (USA/India)
Festival Award-winning documentary features (finalists for $25,000 best documentary prize): All of Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert (USA); Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare (USA); Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet (USA); Rising from Ashes (USA); Trash Dance (USA)
Festival Award-winning short films (finalists for $10,000 Vision Prize for best short film): Buzkashi Boys (Afghanistan/USA), Dva (Germany/Croatia), Inocente (USA), It's Such a Beautiful Day (USA), Kipp Normand (USA), Assemble (Mexico), Head over Heels (UK)
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