February 8 – February 14, 2013

KING’S POINT (USA/40 min.)
Dir. Sari Gilman
Director Sari Gilman tells the stories of five seniors living in a typical American retirement resort — men and women who came to Florida decades ago with their spouses by their sides and their health intact, and now find themselves grappling with love, loss, and the universal desire for human connection. A bittersweet look at our national obsession with self-reliance, KINGS POINT explores the dynamic tension between living and aging, between our desire for independence and our need for community, and underscores our powerful ambivalence toward growing old.

INNOCENTE (USA/40 min.)
Dir. Sean Fine and Andrea Nix
An intensely personal and vibrant coming of age documentary about a young artist’s fierce determination to never surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings. Hers is not just a story of survival, but of resilience. At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Color is her personal revolution and its extraordinary sweep on her canvas creates a world that looks nothing like her own dark past – a past punctuated by a father deported for domestic abuse, an alcoholic and defeated mother of four who once took her daughter by the hand to jump off a bridge together, and an endless shuffle year after year through the city’s overcrowded homeless shelters. Told entirely in her words, we come to Inocente’s story as she realizes her life is at a turning point, and for the first time, she decides to tale control of her own destiny. Inocente is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America—children.

MONDAYS AT RACINE (USA/39 min.)
Dir. Cynthia Wade
Every third Monday of the month, in brassy Long Island, sisters Cynthia and Rachel open up their hair salon, called Racine, and offer free beauty services for women undergoing chemotherapy. Determined to make their customers feel beautiful, the glamour duo knows that Mondays at Racine goes beyond purple painted toes or a frothy facial. The sisters are determined to give women who are losing their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes a sense of normalcy and dignity in a traumatic and uncertain time. The story of what hair means in our culture quickly unfolds into an unexpected look at womanhood, marriage and survival.

OPEN HEART (USA/40 min.)
Dir. Kief Davidson
Eight Rwandan children leave their families behind to embark on a life-or-death journey seeking high-risk heart surgery in Sudan. Their hearts ravaged by a treatable disease from childhood strep throat, the kids have only months to live. OPEN HEART reveals the intertwined endeavors of Dr. Emmanuel Rusingiza, Rwanda’s lone government cardiologist, as he fights to save the lives of his young patients, and Dr. Gino Strada, the Salam Center’s head surgeon who must convince Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir’s government to keep Africa’s only link to life-saving cardiac surgery free of charge for the millions who need it.

REDEMPTION (USA/35 min.)
Dir. Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
In the REDEMPTION, filmmakers Jon Alpert & Matthew O’Neill closely follow this growing army of New Yorkers whose treasures are in the trash. The film, is a chance to meet the marginalized masses we often rush past on our way to catch a bus or make a meeting. They are poor but proud New Yorkers – people who don’t ask for a handout – people whose hands rake through the discards of our lives – building their lives one nickel at a time.

Oscar Shorts! 2013 Animated Program
Oscar Shorts! 2013 Live Action Program