BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:-//EVDB//www.eventful.com//EN VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:DC Labor FilmFest in Silver Spring\, MD at AFI Silver The atre and Cultural Center - Eventful BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20081009T000000 DTEND:20081014T000000 DTSTAMP:20081019T111458Z SUMMARY:DC Labor FilmFest DESCRIPTION: Event Tags: The MoviesDC Labor FilmFest October 9 - 14 O rganized and presented by the Metropolitan Washington Council of the A FL-CIO\, the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute and the American Film Insti tute\, DC Labor FilmFest 2008 boasts an array of new films and beloved classics about work and workers\, from the American office to the far -flung factories of the global economy. For more information\, visit d claborfilmfest.org.   RAMIN BAHRANI: A Work In Progress Ramin Bahran i has become one of the directors the DC Labor FilmFest keeps close tr ack of. In just a few feature films\, Bahrani--a young director who op ened the 2006 festival with MAN PUSH CART--has quickly established him self not only as a filmmaker with strong sympathies for the day-to-day lives of real working people but also as an exquisite cinematic artis t with a keen eye for both grit and beauty. Life is tough and often di sappointing in Bahrani's films and he offers no easy\, sentimental end ings\, yet audiences invariably leave screenings of his films feeling surprisingly uplifted\, as though they have gotten a glimpse of someth ing true and valuable. DC Labor FilmFest is very pleased to screen Bah rani's latest gem\, CHOP SHOP\, and to bring back his brilliant MAN PU SH CART for a much-deserved encore performance. MAN PUSH CART In an a ffecting and well-told story\, Ahmad drags his coffee and bagel cart t hrough Manhattan traffic to set up for the daily rush of morning commu ters. Once a famous pop singer in Pakistan\, Ahmad is recognized by a young executive who promises to connect him to the right people. Ahmad toils and waits\, struggling with his past and self-worth while pinin g for Neomi\, a young Latina woman who works at a neighboring newsstan d. DIR/SCR/PROD Ramin Bahrani\; PROD Brian Bell\, Bedford T. Bentley\, Tom Donahue\, Pradip Ghosh\, Anura Idupuganti. US\, 2005\, color\, 87 min. In English and Urdu with English subtitles. NOT RATED Friday\, O ctober 10\, 6:45  CHOP SHOP The story of Alejandro\, a twelve-year-ol d Latino street orphan in Willet's Point\, aka the "Iron Triangle\," a vibrant\, sprawling\, industrial neighborhood teeming with auto-body repair shops\, scrap yards and garbage dumps on the outskirts of Queen s\, NY. Although conditions are harsh\, the boy's life is sprinkled wi th moments of happiness as he carves out a life for himself in the sha dow of a glittering Shea Stadium. Intimate\, heartbreaking and yet ult imately hopeful\, CHOP SHOP is a portrait of a young boy navigating hi s way through a chaotic adult world. DIR/SCR Ramin Bahrani\; SCR Bahar eh Azimi\; PROD Jeb Brody\, Lisa Muskat\, Marc Turtletaub. US\, 2007\, color\, 84 min. NOT RATED Friday\, October 10\, 8:45\; Wednesday\, Oc tober 15\, 6:30*   STOP-LOSSWhat happens when your boss breaks your contract? If he's the President of the United States\, you've got a pr oblem. When decorated Iraq war hero Ryan Phillippe returns to his smal l Texas hometown following his tour of duty\, he tries to resume the l ife he left behind. But when the Army orders him back to duty in Iraq against his will--"stop-loss\," the involuntary extension of a soldier 's active duty--the conflict tests everything he believes in: the bond of family\, the loyalty of friendship\, the limits of love and the va lue of honor. Co-sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War and U.S. L abor Against the War.DIR/SCR Kimberly Peirce\; SCR Mark Richard\; PROD Gregory Goodman\, Kimberly Peirce\, Mark Roybal\, Scott Rudin. US\, 2 008\, color\, 112 min. RATED R Thursday\, October 9\, 7:00    THE PRO MOTIONSeann William Scott is an assistant manager at a grocery store c hain in Chicago. Things are okay--he has a loving wife\, Jenna Fischer \, and gets along well with his co-workers--until his dreams of a new management position are disrupted by the arrival of John C. Reilly\, a new assistant manager who also shows interest in the job. The two men \, both essentially nice guys\, are forced to compete ruthlessly for t he coveted position\, goaded into betraying themselves by engaging in dirty tricks in a head-to-head battle of wills.DIR/SCR Steven Conrad\; PROD Jessika Borsiczky Goyer\, Steven A. Jones. US\, 2008\, color\, 8 5 min. RATED R Thursday\, October 9\, 9:40\; Saturday\, October 11\, 9 :00    OFFICE SPACE With red stapler raffle!Office workers of the wor ld\, unite...you have nothing to lose but your TPS reports!A perennial Labor FilmFest favorite\, the outrageously funny and twisted OFFICE S PACE returns this year with Gary Cole as the smarmy and self-satisfied boss and Ron Livingston as the fed-up 9-to-5er who decides to exact f inancial justice on the computer company where he works. Ignored on th eatrical release\, the film (with a young Jennifer Aniston) has become a cult classic.DIR/SCR/PROD Mike Judge\; PROD Daniel Rappaport\, Guy Riedel. US\, 1999\, color\, 89 min. RATED R Friday\, October 10\, 10:3 0\; Saturday\, October 11\, 10:45\; Sunday\, October 12\, 9:00    THE MISSING STAR [La Stella che non c'è]When an Italian steel mill close s down\, its refurbished blast furnace is sold to a Chinese broker who whisks it away\, despite warnings of a potentially fatal design flaw. Engineer Sergio Castellitto\, who has figured out how to repair the f law\, sets off for China to find the furnace\, embarking on a journey that will take him deep into a strange country and into himself. Worki ng conditions in China have been the subject of many documentaries\, b ut none so revealing as this quiet drama. As the determined engineer t ravels\, he comes "face to face with abject poverty and abandoned chil dren\, overcrowded apartment blocks and a remote socialist metropolis still presided over by statues of Mao\," --Deborah Young\, VarietyDIR/ SCR Sergio Castellitto\; SCR Umberto Contarello\, based on The Dismiss al by Ermanno Rea\; PROD Marco Chimenz\, Giovanni Stabilini\, Riccardo Tozzi. Italy/France/Switzerland/Singapore\, 2006\, color\, 103 min. N OT RATEDSaturday\, October 11\, 12:45    THE CROWD With live musical accompaniment by organist Ray Brubacher! This realistic\, bittersweet drama of the day-to-day existence of an ordinary American is as releva nt today as it was in 1928\, just before the Great Crash. Director Kin g Vidor's timeless silent American film masterpiece speaks to us 80 ye ars later as we see James Murray\, an Everyman white-collar worker\, t rying to make it with his wife in the big city\, where they must cope with cramped living conditions\, a boring job and a limited life with regret and bitterness. King Vidor received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.DIR/SCR King Vidor\; SCR John V. A. Weaver\, Joe Fa rnham\; PROD Irving Thalberg. US\, 1928\, b&w\, 104 min. NOT RATED Sat urday\, October 11\, 3:00    NOTE BY NOTE: THE MAKING OF STEINWAY L10 37In Person: Director Ben NilesThe 2007 SILVERDOCS sensation returns t o AFI. Can craftsmanship survive in an age of mass-production and cons umption? The most thoroughly handcrafted instruments in the world\, St einway pianos are as unique and full of personality as the world-class musicians who play them. However\, their makers --members of Local 81 -102 of the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications W orkers of America--are a dying breed: skilled cabinet-makers\, gifted tuners\, thorough hand-crafters. NOTE BY NOTE follows the creation of a Steinway concert grand from forest floor to concert hall. The docume ntary also features interviews and performances with world-class artis ts including Chinese phenom Lang Lang\, Helene Grimaud\, Pierre-Lauren t Aimard\, and jazz greats Hank Jones\, Marcus Roberts\, Kenny Barron\ , Harry Connick\, Jr. and Bill Charlap.DIR/PROD Ben Niles\; PROD Geoff O'Brien. US\, 2007\, color\, 81 min. NOT RATEDSaturday\, October 11\, 5:10    KABLUEYLast year's OFFICE SPACE! Scott Prendergast is paid $ 6 an hour to stand on the side of a highway in a blue foam-rubber suit as Kabluey\, the corporate mascot of a failing Internet company. Thou gh Prendergast has a hard time doing his job--the fliers he passes out keep slipping from his inflated blue paws--he manages to find "an odd kind of transcendence in the work\," writes Stephen Holden in The New York Times\, adding that Kabluey "portrays a demoralized American wor k force fearfully going through the motions of life while waiting with out much hope for things to get better."DIR/SCR Scott Prendergast\; PR OD Jeff Balis\, Rhoades Rader\, Rick Rosenthal\, Gary Dean Simpson\, D ouglas J. Sutherland. US\, 2007\, color\, 86 min. RATED PG-13 With: T HE PLANNING LADY Candice\, an elementary student\, is confused about h er future career until she sits down with her school guidance counselo r\, who helps Candice realize her dream career path and\, in the proce ss\, learns an important lesson from the young girl about keeping drea ms alive. A light-hearted comedy that reminds us there is no age limit on the age-old question of what we want to be when we grow up. Offici al Selection\, 2008 DC Shorts Film Festival. DIR Marty Shea. US\, 2007 \, 9 min.Saturday\, October 11\, 7:05    9 STAR HOTEL [Malon 9 Kocha vim]Thousands of Palestinians have illegally crossed borders into neig hboring Israel\, seeking work as day laborers in construction. Directo r Ido Haar follows his subjects closely as they flee from police\, ris k their lives and sleep in hovels at night to build luxury housing by day. 9 STAR HOTEL is a devastating documentary portrait of young men c aught in an economic and political maelstrom not of their own making-- their dreams subsumed by the hard reality of day-to-day survival. (not e courtesy Rochester Labor Film Series)DIR Ido Haar. Israel\, 2007\, c olor\, 78 min. In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles. NOT RATED With: THE JOB The immigration debate just got a little funnier. Direc tor Jonathan Browning turns the world of labor relations upside down i n this short comedy about the issues faced by day laborers in the US. Winner of an Audience Choice Award at the 2007 DC Shorts Film Festival . DIR Jonathan Browning. US\, 2008\, 3 min. Sunday\, October 12\, 1:00     MODERN TIMES #33 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs!Chaplin's Little Tramp gets trapped in the coils of automation--at one point literally --so frenziedly tightening screws on the assembly line that\, once off it\, he compulsively tightens buttons on women. Inspired by Rene Clai r's A NOUS LA LIBERTE\, this corrosive satire on the dehumanizing effe cts of technology gives its screeches\, groans and grinds more lines t han the actors. One of Chaplin's most lighthearted works\, with highli ghts including his helpful waving of a red flag dropped by a departing truck just as a Communist demonstration marches up behind him. The fi nal shuffling walk into the distance was the last the Tramp would take --but this time in the vivacious company of Paulette Goddard's "Gamin. " This sparkling new 35mm restoration print was presented at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival's closing night.DIR/SCR/PROD Charles Chaplin. US\ , 1936\, b&w\, 87 min. NOT RATED Sunday\, October 12\, 2:45    END OF THE LINE [Fim da Linha] A World Bank official supposedly said that t he only way to really share the wealth in Brazil would be to throw mon ey from a helicopter. END OF THE LINE takes this idea literally and sp ins it into a clever black comedy. A series of seemingly unrelated eve nts that turn out to be closely interwoven: an Indian tribe goes on st rike\, refusing to perform their rain dance\; a drought creates a powe r blackout\; and a journalist is working on a documentary about Charle s Ponzi\, the inventor of the pyramid fraud. Meanwhile\, a politician wins the lottery\, a baby goes missing and money rains from the sky. E verything comes together in an exciting parable about what happens whe n people put their faith in the absolute power of money.DIR/SCR/PROD G ustavo Steinberg\; SCR Guilherme Werneck\; PROD Clarissa Knoll. Brazil \, 2008\, color\, 76 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles. NOT RA TED Sunday\, October 12\, 7:00    GREAT WORLD OF SOUNDAcclaimed at th e 2007 Sundance Film Festival\, this unique American indie plays like a mix of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS and AMERICAN IDOL. A close-up look at the practice of 'song sharking\,' the story focuses on pensive Pat Healy and garrulous Kene Holliday\, salesmen recruited by a shady record lab el to seek out new talent\, and sell phony recording deals. At first o blivious to the scam\, the duo soon realize they're being conned just like the musicians. "Its sense of place\, of lonely hotel rooms and fl y-by-night offices decorated with spray-painted gold records\, is as n icely observed as its morally compromised characters." --Manohla Dargi s\, The New York Times (note courtesy Rochester Labor Film Series)DIR/ SCR/PROD Craig Zobel\; SCR George Smith\; PROD David Gordon Green\, Me lissa Palmer\, Richard A. Wright. US\, 2007\, color\, 106 min. RATED R Sunday\, October 12\, 4:40\; Tuesday\, October 14\, 9:45 LOCATION:AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center @ 8633 Colesville Road , Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 United States SEQUENCE:1224414898 UID:E0-001-015924135-5 URL:http://eventful.com/E0-001-015924135-5 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR