Highlights from Ojai Film Festival 2001

The award-winning films from Ojai Film Festival 2001

Festival Theme Award
given to the film best exemplifying the theme "Enriching the
Human Spirit Through Film"

THE LEGACY OF ROSINA LHEVINNE
2001, USA, 64 MINS
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: SALOME RAMRAS ARKATOV
An exploration of the life and achievements of the legendary Rosina Lhevinne, this film offers a compelling and revealing portrait of one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century and one of the greatest piano teachers of all time. Through intimate conversations and stunning performances, the film reveals her unique achievements from age 65 to 96 and shows how she influenced and molded some of this century’s most celebrated musicians, including Van Cliburn, John Williams, and James Levine.

Best of Festival and Best Documentary Short

EXODUS
2000, ENGLAND, 38 MINS
PRODUCER: RUTH BURNETT
DIRECTOR: DOLLAN CANNELL
Award-winning filmmaker Sorious Samura of Sierra Leone documents the harrowing journeys of Africans desperate to leave their blighted homeland to reach a better life in Europe. The lucky few who do make it have to brave another hazardous journey across the Mediterranean in over-crowded boats to Spain. This film follows the remarkable story of one immigrant, Osas, whose absolute determination to achieve his mission reveals his willingness to sacrifice everything to get out of Africa.

Best Documentary Feature

THE GOOD WAR AND THOSE WHO REFUSED TO FIGHT IT
2000, USA, 57 MINS
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: JUDITH EHRLICH, RICK TEJADA-FLORES
This film celebrates the spirit of nonviolence in the face of the most popular war of this century. During World War II, 45,000 American conscientious objectors refused combat because they could not take another life. This film documents Lew Ayres, a filmmaker whose films were banned because of his pacifist beliefs, and tells the story of the conscientious objectors who proved their bravery in non-combatant roles during the war and in post-war civil reform.

Documentary Feature Honorable Mention

FIGHT TO THE MAX
2001, USA, 81 MINS
PRODUCERS: SIMEON SOFFER, JONATHAN STACK
DIRECTOR: SIMEON SOFFER
This thought-provoking film spotlights the Louisiana Prison Boxing Championships and the lives of the boxers who fight for pride and redemption in one of the country’s harshest penal systems. Following boxers from four different prisons, it shows the inmates as they train for the championships—an all-out war between the toughest prisoners in the South. Shot in black and white and color 16mm to represent the vagaries of life in the “big house,” the film’s musical score is provided by the inmates themselves.

Best Student Film

A PIECE OF EARTH
2001, USA, 23 MINS
PRODUCERS: HILDA MERCADO, ALBERTO GONZALEZ-REYNA
DIRECTOR: JORGE GAGGERO
This film shows the life-changing journey of the 101-year-old veteran of the Mexican Revolution, Don Aurelio, to return to his birthplace. Aurelio is about to die in Mexico, and his last wish is to be buried in his birthplace of Palos Verdes, California in the United States. However, he doesn’t trust his family to uphold his wish and decides he must be taken there at once, leaving town with his two grandchildren aboard an old car with his coffin attached to the top.

Best Narrative Short

CLEAN-RITE COWBOY
2000, CANADA, 21 MINS
PRODUCER: JOE AWERBUCK
WRITER/DIRECTOR: MICHAEL DOWNING
An unhappy and repressed suburban man works as a carpet cleaner after his insurance business goes under. A chance encounter with an old sweetheart both reawakens his desires and unalterably changes his relationship with his son. The filmmaker, who is currently a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute, confidently directs his spare—but rich—script. The film was nominated for a 2001 Genie Award for Best Canadian Short. (Student produced)

Narrative Short Honorable Mention

KING RETURNS
2001, USA, 22 MINS
PRODUCERS: WENDY WEBER, DAGEN MERRILL
DIRECTOR: MARC BENERÍA
Fifty years after Pepe Reyes first brought the revolutionary sound of the Spanish flamenco guitar to Hollywood, he seems poised to reclaim his lost fame and happiness with the re-release of his album The King of Flamenco. However, the promise of a new future is tainted by the news of his estranged wife’s death and the painful onslaught of memories that Reyes is powerless to escape. (Student produced)

Best Narrative Feature

ROLLERCOASTER
1999, CANADA, 90 MINS
WRITER/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: SCOTT SMITH
Having just run away from a group home, five teenagers let loose to pursue a fantasy at a deserted amusement park. Fueled by booze and drugs, they wander aimlessly through the park until they are confronted by the suspiciously teen-friendly security guard. This multiple award-winning film offers a fresh look at teen sexuality, relationships, suicide, and violence while perfectly capturing the voices of alienated teens. Stephen Holden of the New York Times said “Astounding . . . captures the raw emotions and daredevil vulnerability of adolescence with a scary accuracy.”

Special Jury Award

GANGSTER NO. 1
2000, UNITED KINGDOM, 103 MINS
PRODUCER: NORMA HEYMAN, JONATHAN CAVENDISH
DIRECTOR: PAUL McGUIGAN
A stylish, tough, artfully structured saga of British gangster life in the last 30 years, this film explores a raw world where everyone is a victim. As the aging main honcho, Malcolm McDowell book-ends the film with angst and bravado and provides the telling voice-over for his younger self, played by the charismatic Paul Bettany. David Thewlis and Saffron Burrows also shine as the couple who manage a wounded escape. The film is based on the play by Sexy Beast writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto.

Best Animated Film

THE SNOWMAN
2001, USA, 5 MINUTES
PRODUCER: CAROLYN BATES
DIRECTOR: LANE NAKAMURA
Aliens from another planet kidnap a snowman, hoping he will divulge all he knows about Earth’s interplanetary defense system. As the aliens interrogate him, the snowman begins to melt, causing the electricity in the ship to short circuit. Sparks fly as the ship begins to explode, foiling the aliens’ diabolical plot to attack Earth. (Student produced)

Animation Honorable Mention

THE PICKLE JAR
2001, USA, 7.5 MINUTES
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: BENJAMIN GOLDMAN
This film is a convoluted love story involving insects and humans. An armored stink beetle is an unwelcome visitor in Dan’s bedroom, but the beetle’s attempt to befriend and advise Dan ends in an unlikely romance. (Student produced)

Special Award for "Most Imaginative Use of the Film Medium"

MODERN DAYDREAMS
2001, USA, 12 MINS
DIRECTOR: MITCHELL ROSE
This trilogy explores the theme of movement engendered by day-to-day life and examines machinery as metaphor for isolation. In “Islands in the Sky,” four people weave 50 feet in the air atop four cherry-pickers, aloft and aloof in their ivory towers. “Treadmill Softly” follows a man who reaches his aerobic heart rate at the gym when he falls for a hunkette. In “Deere John,” a man and a 22-ton John Deere excavator perform a dance of discovery, fulfillment, and loss.