The Brooklyn International Film Festival (BiFF) announces the film line up for its 11th annual festival, themed Cinergy. The competitive event will run May 30-June 8 and films will be shown at both the Brooklyn Lyceum Theater (featuring 36 two-hour film programs) and Brooklyn Heights Cinema (featuring 31 two-hour film programs).
Each film selected will be shown twice, at different times/venues. Opening night will be celebrated May 30 at the Brooklyn Lyceum Theater on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope. Highlights of US films to be shown include:
• Able Danger (US Premiere): Thomas Flynn, the idealist owner of a left-leaning radical cafe-bookstore and the quixotic publisher of a hard-hitting 9/11 conspiracy expose, finds himself entangled with a mysterious Eastern European beauty, Kasia, who possesses the smoking gun that proves the identities and methods of the real architects of 9/11.
• August (East Coast Premiere): An aggressive young dot-com entrepreneur (Josh Hartnett) struggles to keep his head above water as the market enters a downward freefall through the course of a single year, from August 2001 to August 2002. At its most basic level, “August” is about hubris — about a time when we, as Americans, thought we were untouchable.
• The Collective (East Coast Premiere): In New York City knowing what to believe is never easy. When Tyler Clarke gets a cryptic voicemail from her sister, she is left with no choice but to fly across the country to find out what has happened. But when she arrives, Jessica is nowhere to be found. She eventually discovers that her sister has given up the life she was living to join a group that call themselves “The Collective.”
• The Fix (New York Premiere): Racing across Los Angeles in one, unwieldy day, documentary filmmakers Bella and Milo must race from Beverly Hills to Watts — and places in between — in order to get Milo’s brother Leo from jail to rehab before 8 p.m., or Leo goes to prison for three years. A story inspired by true events, the trio documents their trip from a suburban police station in Calabasas through mansions in Beverly Hills, East LA chop-shops, rural wastelands, and housing projects in Watts as they attempt to raise the $5,000 required to get Leo into the rehab clinic.
• Crawford (New York Premiere): What happens to the 705 residents of Crawford, Texas when George W. Bush moves to town? Shoved into the spotlight for political stagecraft, their insular town explodes overnight. Now, through the eyes of Crawford’s colorful, dynamic people, comes a funny, dramatic, breakthrough film — a unique reflection on the Bush era.
· On June 1, BiFF will present the 4th annual kidsfilmfest (www.kidsfilmfest.org) at Lyceum Theater, 1-3:30 p.m.
For a full film lineup and more information, visit www.brooklynfest.org or call 646-234-5080 or 718-486-5889.
