AFF + Sundance Institute/NHK Award

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
1999 / USA / 110min.

*2000 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Award

[SYNOPSIS]
It is an omnibus film which focuses on the distressful lives of women living in Los Angeles. A female doctor, taking care of her elderly mother. A single mother, doting on her only son. A female detective, living with a blind sister who knows she is beautiful. It warmly portrays weak and tender human nature through vulnerable and fragile happiness.

[DIRECTOR]
Rodrigo Garcia

Rodrigo Garcia grew up in Mexico City and attended Harvard University. He has been a cinematographer since graduating from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles twelve years ago. His credits include "LOLA" and "DANZON"(directed by Maria Novaro); "INDICTMENT"(directed by Mick Jackson); "MI VIDA LOCA" and "FOUR ROOMS"(directed by Allison Anders); and "GIA" and "BODY SHOTS"(directed by Michael Cristofer). His screenplay, "THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER", was invited to participate in both the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs at Sundance.

[Staff]
Director / Screenplay : Rodrigo Garcia
Producers : Jon Avnet / Lisa Lindstrom / Marsha Oglesby
Executive Producers : Elie Samaha / Andrew Stevens
Line Producer : Effie Brown
Cinematographer : Emmanuel Lubezki
Editor : Amy E. Duddleston
Production Designer : Jerry Fleming
Costume Design : George L. Little
Original Music : Edward Shearmur
Sound : Cormac Funge / Jose Antonio Garcia II / Michael Hertlein
Production : Franchise Pictures / LTZ II, Inc. / Avnet / Kerner Productions

[Cast]
Dr. Elaine Keener : Glenn Close
Carol : Cameron Diaz
Christine : Calista Flockhart
Kathy : Amy Brenneman
Lilly : Valeria Golino
Rose : Kathy Baker
Rebecca : Holly Hunter
Walter : Matt Craven
Robert : Gregory Hines
Sam : Miguel Sandoval
Jay : Noah Fleiss
Albert : Danny Woodburn
Debbie : Roma Maffia
Carmen : Elpidia Carrillo
Nancy(as Penny Allen) : Penelope Allen

La Ciénaga(The Swamp)
2001 / Argentina / 103min.

*2001 Berlin International Film Festival Alfred Bauer Prize
*2001 Havana Film Festival Golden Coral, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Sound

[SYNOPSIS]
In Northwest Argentina, the rains form swamps in the humid summer. Mecha lives with her kids and husband in a mansion with a swimming pool. Having nothing to do, she kills time with alcohol. Her kin, Tali's family comes from a town called "LA CIÉNAGA", Swamp, to spend the summer at Mecha's. In this remote countryside, two families are put upside down by some incidents.

[DIRECTOR]
Lucrecia Martel

Lucrecia Martel was born December 14, 1966 in Salta in the North of Argentina. Even as a child, she would make films about the various members of her large family. She studied social communications at the University of Buenos Aires, animation film at the Avellaneda school, then filmmaking at the Argentinian Film Centre and video techniques at the Rodolfo Hermida School. Between 1995 and 1998 she directed several documentaries for television and children's programs as well as the 1995 short REY MUERTO which received several international awards. LA CIÉNAGA won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival 2001. Her next film, LA NINA SANTA(2004), was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Martel became a jury member at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

[Staff]
Director / Screenwriter : Lucrecia Martel
Producer : Lita Stantic
Co-producer : Jose Maria Morales
Director of Photography : Hugo Colace
Editor : Santiago Ricci
Art Director : Graciela Oderigo
Set Designer : Cristina Nigro

[Cast]
Tali : Mercedes Moran
Gregorio : Martin Adjemian
Joaquin : Diego Baenas
Veronica : Leonora Balcarce
Mercedes : Silvia Bayle
Momi : Sofia Bertolotto
Jose : Juan Cruz Bordeu
Mecha : Graciala Borges

Very Annie Mary
2000 / UK / 104min.

*2002 U.S.Comedy Arts Festival, Best Actress, Best Screenplay

[SYNOPSIS]
In Wales, UK, a religious father, a bakery, who loves singing lives with a daughter Annie, 33, who wants to break free and becomes a singer. Though with a gentle nature, she is hooked on horse racing. One day, her father has a stroke and she, in stead, bakes bread but fails. For the meantime, she wins a large purse in a singing competition. She, however, loses all the money on betting on horses.

[DIRECTOR]
Sara Sugarman

She studied at RADA and at the film school in Bournemouth. Her graduation film UP THE VALLEY won the Welsh International Film Festival. In 1996 she wrote and directed VALLEY GIRLS premiered at the Welsh Film Festival and won the Best Film at the 1997 Celtic Film Festival.

[Staff]
Director / Screenplay : Sara Sugarman
Producer : Graham Broadbent
Casting Director : Joyce Gallie, Sally Osoba
Music : Stephen Warbeck
Costume Design : Caroline Harris
Production Designer : Alice Normington
Editor : Robin Sales
Director of Photography : Barry Ackroyd

[Cast]
Annie Mary : Rachel Griffiths
Jack Pugh : Jonathan Pryce
Hob : Ioan Gruffudd
Bethan Bevan : Joanna Page
Colin Thomas : Rhys Miles Thomas

Go! Heat Man!
2001 / Japan / 108min.

*2002 Sundance Film Festival

[SYNOPSIS]
Kosuke, a high school boy, breaks a camera of Reiko, a photographer, while delivering pizza. He goes to her place to apologize with his own money. She says she will forgive him, if he bakes her pizza by himself. After a struggle, he delivers his pizza, but she has gone back to her hometown, Nagasaki. In order to keep his promise, he rides on his scooter and heads for Nagasaki.

[DIRECTOR]
Mitsuhiko Yazaki

After graduating from Keio University with a degree in economics, Yazaki studied film at Kamakura Eiga Juku Film School in 1994. That same year, he directed "MOVE ALONG!", which was invited to the Helsinki Film Festival. "GO! HEAT MAN!" is his first feature film.

[Staff]
Director / Screenwriter : Mitsuhiko Yazaki
Executive Producer : Masaya Nakamura
Producer : Minoru Yokote and Keiko Iino
Director of Photography : Shuji Kuriyama
Editor : Shinichi Fushima
Sound : Kazushiko Yokono

[Cast]
Kosuke Nishino : Kotaro Takada
Reiko Iizuka : Miwa Mukunoki
Naomi Nishino : Jun Miho
Mysterious Harley-Davidson Man : Tsutomu Yamazaki

NHK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL + Sundance Institute/NHK Award

1999

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her1999 / USA / 110min.

La Ciénaga(The Swamp)2001 / Argentina / 103min.

Very Annie Mary2000 / UK / 104min.

Go! Heat Man!2001 / Japan / 108min.

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her
1999 / USA / 110min.

La Ciénaga(The Swamp)
2001 / Argentina / 103min.

Very Annie Mary
2000 / UK / 104min.

Go! Heat Man!
2001 / Japan / 108min.