Film
How to Fix the World - Thursday, November 5
8:30-10:30 pm
Screening and Q&A (Philadelphia premiere)
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) - $15/$20 after 10/25
Lie with a straight face. That’s how you get away with posing as a top executive, manipulating the media, and fabricating announcements to force corporations to correct misdeeds, say the Yes Men. Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (aka the Yes Men) are as irreverent about the stunts they pull as they are earnest about righting cultural wrongs. Brainstorm with them about how to effect change right here and now after watching how they do it in “The Yes Men Fix the World.”
Obsolete and Whining - Saturday, November 7
5:30-6:30 pm
Presentation, film screening, book signing
FREE
Payphones. Rolodexes. Cursive writing. The dustbin of modern history is overflowing with “once-common things passing us by.” Anna Jane Grossman joins us at the Festival to reminisce about the good old ways, documented in her quirky new encyclopedia, Obsolete. She shares program with Cecilia Smith, who screens her short documentary “The Art of Fine Whining” - about the Philadelphia Complaint Choir that premiered at 2008 Festival and lives on in cyberspace.
The Girl From Foreign - Sunday, November 8
Noon-2 pm
In advance: $20 (First Person Arts members) / $25 (general public) - $25/$30 after 10/25
Presentation, film screening, Q&A, book signing, lunch, concert
Sadia Shepard, daughter of a Christian/American father and Muslim/Pakistani mother, understood the complexities of a multi-cultural household. What made her melting pot overflow was the discovery that her grandmother had been born Jewish. Compelled to reclaim her roots, she travelled to India to discover the history of the Jews of India, believed to be descendents of the lost tribes of Israel. She brings this journey to life in her memoir The Girl from Foreign and her film In Search of the Bene Israel, which she presents at the festival. Music by the Lenny Seidman Tabla Choir and a buffet by Ekta Indian Restaurant evoke the tastes and sounds of her unusual history.
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe - Sunday, November 8
3:30-5:30PM
Film screening and Q&A (Philadelphia premiere)
In advance: $12 (First Person Arts members) / $15 (general public) - $15/$20 after 10/25
The name William Kunstler is cloaked in controversy. Revered by activists for taking on the establishment (the Chicago Seven, Attica, the stand-off at Wounded Knee), he was later reviled for defending people accused of rape, murder, organized crime and terrorism. David Rudovsky, one of the nation’s leading civil rights and criminal defense attorneys, joins filmmaker Emily Kunstler to discuss her father’s complicated legacy and the legal ethics questions they explore in her provocative new film: William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe.
This program has been approved for two hours of ethics credit for Pennsylvania lawyers. Credits may be available in other jurisdictions as well. Attorneys seeking CLE credit should bring a check in the amount of $25, payable to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, to the event.
Still Bill - Sunday, November 8
7:30-9:30PM
Film screening, Q&A, concert (Philadelphia premiere)
In advance: $20 (First Person Arts members) / $25 (general public) - $25/$30 after 10/25
Just the Two of Us. Ain’t No Sunshine. Lean on Me. The man who wrote the songs that defined a decade walked away from showbiz without a look back. For 23 years, Bill Withers shunned the spotlight and refused all interviews — until filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack convinced him to tell his surprising story. Still Bill gives us an inside look at Bill Wither’s life and personality, tells why he stopped performing at the peak of his career and who he is today. An amazing portrait of an icon who never gave up his soul.The evening concludes with a live concert of Withers’ classics by the legendary Johnny Ingram of the Funk Brothers, and his band.
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