October 18 at the Hots Springs Documentary Film Festival

The following documentaries are offered today at the Malco Theater as part of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
Monday, October 18
10 a.m.
THE LEFTOVERS
Australia, 28 minutes, Kerstin Übelacker / Margarete Jangard
The Leftovers is a road trip adventure about people who eat trash. Meet Mykel and Paul, two experienced Dumpster Divers as they embark on a Journey down the east coast of Australia. Wanting to make a statement about today’s over consuming society they challenged themselves to live of nothing but waste. Leaving their money behind they power their van with waste veggie oil and eat out of bins along the way.
10 a.m.
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
USA, 10 minutes, Sebastian Hernandez
Leaving their workaday New York lives for semi-rural New Mexico, Mikey and Wendy scrape by in the desert as they prepare for a coming collapse. They geek out on solar power, grow their own food, and get by on barter as they build their homestead on the frontier. In this warm yet honest look on into their daily life, Mikey and Wendy reveal the love, fear and commitment that goes into changing one’s life forever.
10 a.m.
A SIMPLE QUESTION: THE STORY OF STRAW
USA, 35 minutes, Kevin White / David Donnenfield
A Simple Question: the Story of STRAW is an inspiring 35 minute film about the STRAW Project (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed) starting from its origins in 1992 as a fourth grade class-project into a remarkable program that has restored over 20 miles of habitat, galvanized the local community, and led to significant educational innovations by connecting children and teachers with nature. Film maker is present.
10:05 a.m.
BOWLING BLIND
USA, 35 minutes, Marc Cantone
A film that chronicles the struggles, triumphs and misadventures of the Metropolitan Blind Bowlers on their journey to the National Blind Bowling Tournament. A home for the disabled, Selis Manor has a small, two-lane bowling alley in the basement. Due to lack of funding, the league is chronically in the red and this year is no different. For most in the league, straying from their fixed incomes to attend the tournament is out of the question. But they’re determined to go. Film maker is present.
11:45 a.m.
MARIA Y YO "MARIA AND I"
Spain, 80 minutes, Félix Fernández de Castro
María lives with her mother May, in the Canary Islands, 3,000 km from Barcelona, where Miguel Gallardo has his home. Sometimes Miguel and María go on holiday together, spending a week at a resort in southern Gran Canaria, a rather unusual setting where the guests don’t normally include a single father and his fourteen year-old autistic daughter. This is the story of one of their journeys, but above all it’s an original tale, full of humor, irony and sincerity, about how to live with a disability. U.S. premiere.
11:50 a.m.
ELEANORE & THE TIMEKEEPER
USA, 76 minutes, Daniéle Wilmouth
The complexities of a mother’s sacrifice are discovered when Eleanore, at age 91, moves her developmentally disabled son Ronnie into a group home, after 64 years of devoted companionship and daily ritual in their modest Pennsylvania farmhouse. Eleanore & the Timekeeper is a quiet love story between a mother and son, which records the inevitable transformation in their relationship, and shifting definitions of home over a seven-year span. Film maker is present.
1:30 p.m.
ARPAIO’S AMERICA
USA, 39 minutes, Jodi Wu / Chris Wells
Arpaio’s America depicts the aggressive local immigration enforcement implemented by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. The film shows how and why Arizona became the battleground for immigration reform in America. The film features Sheriff Arpaio, as well as Russell Pearce, author of Arizona’s recent immigration law, Mary Rose Wilcox, Maricopa County Supervisor, and George Gascon, San Francisco Police Chief and former Police Chief of Mesa, Arizona.
1:30 p.m.
STORIES FROM BAGHDAD U.S.A.
USA, 29 minutes, Alex Farnsley / Kevin King
Stories from Baghdad U.S.A. is a short documentary film about the thousands of Iraqi Christian immigrants and refugees who have come to a small valley in California for opportunity and to escape persecution and violence. Film maker is present.
1:40 p.m.
RETURN TO VIRUNGA: THE BATTLE TO SAVE THE MOUNTAIN GORILLAS
Congo, 47 minutes, Stefan Lovgren
At the epicenter of the long-running civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo lies Virunga National Park, home to more than 200 of the only 720 mountain gorillas remaining in the world. Here, small but dedicated forces of forest rangers risk their lives to save one of the world’s greatest and most vulnerable species. The documentary follows the rangers as they return to Virunga after having been banished by rebels from the park for more than a year.
1:40 p.m.
ZUD. COLD SYMPHONY
Mongolia, 30 minutes, Buyanbadrakh Markhaakhuu
Like their ancestors in the 13th century, the nomadic lifestyle still characterizes Mongolian herders. Bayanbat is one of the Mongolian herders who fought to keep his animals alive for more than six months in freezing temperatures that average minus forty degrees Celsius.
3:05 p.m.
GREENLIT
USA, 50 minutes, Miranda Bailey
Movie people are legendarily liberal and left leaning, particularly when it comes to the environment. Greenlit puts their commitment to the test as film maker Miranda Bailey, executive producer of The Squid and the Whale, follows the production of The River Why, starring Zach Gilford, Friday Night Lights, as it attempts to keep an environmentally friendly set thanks to the supervision of a green consultant. What starts off with great enthusiasm quickly devolves in this insightful and hilarious film.
3:05 p.m.
LAST NIGHT AT THE DRIVE-IN
USA, 6 minutes, Brennan F. Leverenz
A look inside the projection booth at Las Vegas, New Mexico’s historic Fort Union Drive- In. Built in the 1940’s, it still uses the original carbon-rod projectors. But it is getting harder to find carbons.
Film maker is present.
3:25 p.m.
THE LAST ELEPHANTS IN THAILAND
USA/Thailand, 40 minutes, Donald Tayloe / Michelle Mizner
At the turn of the 20th Century, there were 100,000 elephants in Thailand. Today, there are less than 5,000. Where are they going? Who is working to save them? And what can you do to help? Visit the world’s first elephant hospital and meet leading experts to discover why the country’s most revered species is fast disappearing.
3:25 p.m.
THE MOST DISTANT PLACES
Ecuador/USA, 36 minutes, Mike Seely
Dr. Edgar Rodas has dedicated his life to improving the health conditions for underprivileged communities in his native Ecuador, and Cinterandes is his visionary mobile hospital and rural health care project. The Most Distant Places follows Dr. Rodas and his team to the far reaches of Ecuador, interweaving intimate portrayals of the doctors with stories of the patients they treat.
4:30 p.m.
GROWN IN DETROIT
Netherlands/USA, 60 minutes, Mascha Poppenk
Just imagine teen moms becoming urban farmers. Utopia? Not in Detroit. Nature is taking over the city and the new generation is taught to harvest its profit. Grown in Detroit focuses on the urban gardening efforts managed by a public school of 300, mainly African-American, pregnant and parenting teenagers. Many of them start out disliking the often physically hard work on the farm but this aversion disappears as they see their crops growing and being sold for profit.
5 p.m.
MOUNT ST. ELIAS
Austria/USA, 100 minutes, Gerald Salmina
Mount St Elias is a dramatic and awe-inspiring feature documentary following three of the worlds greatest ski mountaineers to Mount St Elias in Alaska in their attempt to realize the longest ski descent of the world. Two Austrian ski alpinists Axel Naglich and Peter Ressmann as well as the American freeski pro, Jon Jonhston are facing this breathtaking challenge. A movie that finally shows why it is the mountains which unite lethal danger and delirious happiness.
5:55 p.m.
MEN WHO SWIM
Sweden, 70 minutes, Dylan Williams / Al Morrow
When a British man living in Sweden finds himself on the brink of turning 40, he combats his mid-life crisis in the usual way: by joining a men’s synchronized swimming team. Made up of middle-aged men from all walks of life, the team begins as a hobby to escape the daily grind. Soon, however, it inspires an unexpected level of commitment and brotherhood as they plan to compete at the unofficial All Male World Championship in Milan.
6 p.m.
IT CAME FROM KUCHAR
USA, 86 minutes, Jennifer Kroot
Long before YouTube, there were the brilliantly insane, no-budget movies of underground, film-making twins George and Mike Kuchar. Creating stars out of their friends and family with just consumer-grade cameras, the teenage Kuchar brothers went from the 1960’s New York City underground film scene of Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger to become the twin maestros of B-movie glamour and sleaze.
7:05 p.m.
BLOODY MONDAYS & STRAWBERRY PIES
Egypt/USA, 89minutes, Coco Schrijber
A substantial part of life is claimed by boredom. Beauty, love, work, sometimes it just isn’t worth getting out of bed. John Malkovich gives voice to our inner bored selves. He gets under the skin, prompting questions like, "how many people in the world are like me?"
7:30 p.m.
BOUNCING CATS
USA/Uganda, 76 minutes, Nabil Elderkin / Claude Merkel
Uganda has been called on of the worst places on earth to be a child. In 2006, Abrahmz Tekya, an AIDS orphan, created the Break Dance Project Uganda - B.P.U. The dream was to establish a workshop teach kids about B-Boy Culture. Bouncing Cats is the inspiring story of one man’s attempt to create a better life for the children of Uganda using the unlikely tool of hip-hop culture wit the focus on break-dance.
9 p.m.
EXXXIT: LIFE AFTER PORN
USA, 90 minutes, Bryce Wagoner
Exxxit: Life After Porn, is a documentary that not only examines the lives and careers of some of the biggest names in the history of the adult entertainment industry; but what happens to them after they leave the business and try and live the normal lives that millions of other Americans enjoy. Viewer discretion is advised. Film maker is present.
9:10 p.m.
THE DANCING BOYS OF AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan, 52 minutes, Jamie Doran
As the West pours billions of dollars into the fight against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, an ancient tradition has re-emerged across the rest of the country. Hundreds of boys as young as 10, living in extreme poverty, lured off the streets on the promise of a new life away from destitution, unaware their real fate is to be used for entertainment. Viewer discretion is advised.
9:10 p.m.
THE VALLEY OF THE DAWN
United Kingdom, 24 minutes, Adrienne Grierson
The people who live in the Valley of Dawn in Brazil believe they originate from the Planet Capela and that the fabulous and outrageous clothes they wear connect them to their interplanetary spirit guides.Does the energy of this tribe and their exotic and glamorous costumes really lead to a whole new spiritual life? Adrienne Grierson finds the answer in the most eccentric and colorful religion on earth.
10:05 p.m.
SILENT STORYTELLERS
USA, 79 minutes, Hop Litzwire / Casey Sanders
Silent Storytellers is an AETN original documentary focusing on the art, history and secrets of Arkansas cemeteries. The story of these sacred grounds is told by individuals passionate about the sense of place they inspire, the history of their residents, beauty of the memorials and pride of preservationists attempting to stave off the affects of time. Through these individuals we are reminded why preserving cemeteries is important to the history and continuity of our communities.