2011 Festival
2011 Documentary Films
2010 Festival
2009 Festival
2011 Documentary Films



Are you a fan of Documentary Films?  SENE has scheduled our documentary films so you don't have to miss any.


Thursday, April 7


Local Documentary Program | 5:30 PM | Cable Car Cinema
                                          
Thompson Chemical
USA, 2010, 68 mins.
Director Roger Mulcahy Jr. in attendance

January 12th, 1964, Thompson Chemical Plant in Attleboro, MA exploded killing seven people. The story of Thompson Chemical is not a single strand that runs in a simple, straight line from beginning to end because the story of Thompson Chemical is not about an event, but rather it's about people and their individual reactions to the tragedy of the explosion.



Friday, April 8

Documentary Program I | 3:30 PM | Cable Car Cinema

3:30 PM
Rapping in Tehran
Iran, 2009, 37 mins.
Director: Hassan Khademi

Young people's tough struggle against the rigid rules of a government of old men. Music and a lifestyle that are strictly forbidden but unstoppable.



4:00 PM
Mezzanotte Obscura
USA, 2009, 24 mins.
Director Lori Petchers in attendance

An inside look into an artist's all consuming passion and creative process as he painstakingly constructs an innovative body of work.  Scientific in nature, but aesthically compelling, the nude images he ultimately creates blur the line between art and science.


4:30 PM
Haiti: Triumph, Sorrow and the Struggle of a People
USA, 2010, 36 mins.
Director Jonas Nosile and editor Tim Labonte in attendance

Chronicles a powerful, adversity-stricken people in the months leading up to a devastating natural disaster.
Website




Documentary Program II |  5:30 PM | Cable Car Cinema

We Were the Vanquished
USA, 2010, 41 mins.
Director: Joshua Samson
Producer Lisa Spurrier in attendance

The Dutch Resistance was one of the fiercest of all the underground movements in Nazi occupied Europe.  A first person documentary of Pieter Gerard van der Hooft's experiences as a member of the Dutch Resistance fighting the Nazis during WW II. It gives rare insight into personal experiences and struggles he and some of those around him endured. He was a POW twice and was put on death row.  Website and trailer


In The Footsteps of Elie Wiesel
USA, 2010, 53 mins.
Director Stephanie Ansaldo in attendance

The extraordinary story of twelve American students as they trace the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel from his birth place in the Transylvania Mountains, to the death camps of Hitler's Third Reich, and beyond. A coming of age story as these students discover that they too, can change the world. Website



Saturday, April 9


Art Documentaries | 3:30 PM | Chace Center

Life Model
USA, 2010, 6 mins.
Director Lori Petchers in attendance

A look into the world of an aging nude figure model and the beautiful artwork she inspires.





Philip Pearlstein: Naked Vision
USA, 2010, 32 mins.
Directors: Jen Dietrich and Sarah Nitschke
Editor Araby Williams in attendance

Ironic, imperturbable, mischievous  and fascinating, Philip Pearlstein's controversial creative vision continues to drive him forward, upstream against time and art history. In depth interviews with famous art world figures help to reveal what is behind the man and his paintings.  Website


Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum
USA, 2010, 56 mins.
Director Alexandra M. Isles in attendance

Last year over five million people visited the Metropolitan Museum. How many were able to find the secrets and powers hidden in the works of art? Museum staff reveal some of the magic they have discovered. Their stories include a wish-granting statue, a sword with a secret compartment, a time traveling melody, a portrait that has become a trusted mentor, a famous landscape with an unexpected population, and the rooms where a dying woman found joy.   Website



Music Documentary | 5:15 PM | Cable Car Cinema

Give and Take
USA, 2011, 62 mins.
Director Carl Kriss in attendance

Contrasts the lives of a professor who auditions for a permit to play in the subway and a homeless man who puts an ad on Craigslist for a free guitar.  Through interviews and musical performances the story highlights the different perspectives the two men have on art and community.  Their story reminds us of the common need for humans to communicate and connect with each other, whether through music or the relationships we have with each other.  Website



Sunday, April 10

Music Documentary | 5:30 PM | The Spot Underground

It's a Bash!    trailer
USA, 2010, 64 mins.
Director David Bettencourt in attendance

An in-depth look at seminal Rhode Island punk rock band Neutral Nation, and, by extension, the Providence live music scene. Neutral Nation were an active band in the scene throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, filling local rock clubs like the Living Room and Club Babyhead, with rabid punk rock fans. Neutral Nation opened for many national acts as they passed through Providence, including the Dead Milkmen, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Ramones, before their 'retirement' in 1993. The band has since played a series of well-attended and regarded 'reunion' shows in the intervening years...Neutral Nation has been playing live music in Rhode Island for over 25 years!