Tacoma Film Festival 2009

'12 Stones' is a beautiful and evocative film by Sundance Award winning filmmaker Sandy Smolan about a remarkable group of illiterate women from the impoverished village of Belsi in southern Nepal, whose journey out of poverty began with the gift of a single goat, and who are now transforming the lives of dozens of other women in their country. The village of Belsi lies off the main highway that connects Nepal to India, a dusty torturous road that winds down from the Katmandu Valley. Most homes don't have windows, running water or electricity. A multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, small and astoundingly beautiful country, Nepal is also one of poorest countries in the world, with nearly half the people living below the poverty line. Outside of Africa, no country is poorer. What distinguishes Belsi from most other villages in the country is that as you move off the road and into the village, the homes begin to change. Next to crumbling mud and thatched roof shacks are solidly constructed concrete homes, with vegetable gardens and cleanly swept yards. The difference is breathtaking. And instead of the shy and reserved women that inhabit most villages in the region, we meet Shanti, Sita, and Parabati, the women of Belsi. Shanti was typical of most Nepalese villagers. She was married at 16 into a family of poor, lower caste farmers. 22 people lived together in one home. Her father-in-law drank heavily and lost the small plot of land the family owned. The family had to work in the fields of the local landlord, who took back most of what they harvested as interest. Sanitation didn't exist. The villagers remained isolated from one another and often had very little contact with their neighbors. Like many rural villages in Nepal, Belsi was caught in a cycle of poverty that was difficult to break. The lack of education, coupled with dire economic circumstances meant that each new generation remained trapped in extreme poverty. 8 years ago a group of women from a neighboring village came to Belsi to try to organize a women's group. Like the other women in her village, Shanti initially was extremely shy and was suspicious of the outsiders. These were woman from a local NGO that had been started by Heifer International, an organization that has been using the donation of livestock - goats, water buffalo, chickens and geese - as means of providing a sustainable livelihood to the poor. But given the unique problems facing Nepal - extreme poverty, high illiteracy, a structured society that doesn't change easily - Heifer and the local NGO's field workers realized that just giving an animal to a family wasn't enough. An idea began to germinate; could you bring an entire village out of poverty by first empowering its' women, traditionally the most marginalized, to be self-sufficient. It was a little idea but no one was prepared for how huge an effect it would have. We first met Shanti, Sita and Parabati in the fall of 2007. Having received their animals from a group of women in the neighboring village of Gitenagar, they had already gone through a remarkable transformation, becoming economically self sufficient, setting up local cooperatives, moving out of mud walled and thatched roof shacks into new concrete homes, and slowly becoming leaders in their community. In spending time with these women it is hard to believe that just a few years ago they would have been incapable of speaking to a stranger. They are confident, outspoken and passionate about explaining the transformation of their lives. They are also keenly intent on passing on the keys to their own empowerment to other women in neighboring villages. We returned and filmed with them for several weeks in March of 2008. We got to know these women intimately. We gained their trust and got them to speak openly about both the hardship of their lives and the incredible transformation they have undergone. Though the film is largely told through the voices of the women, the intent was to emotionally capture the remarkable transformation they have undergone. As a filmmaker, I started my career in documentaries but for the last 20 years I have been directing feature films, TV movies and series. In meeting these women, I was immediately drawn to the inherent drama of their lives and recognized that there was an opportunity to use the visual language of narrative filmmaking to capture their story. The inward transformation they were undergoing, set against both the beauty and squalor of Nepal, lent itself to extraordinary visual storytelling. At a moment when the world is facing an unprecedented food crisis, the films highlights an extraordinary new model of aid with the potential to keep hundreds of thousands of people out of abject poverty and hunger. By Intimately connecting the audience with an issue of global importance and capturing how the seemingly simple gift of a single animal donated by an individual in the developing world can have such a vast transformative effect on ending world hunger, '12 Stones' also addresses two commonly asked questions about foreign aid: 'Does it work?' and 'What can I do?'. Deeply moving and with breathtaking cinematography by Polish cinematographer Jacek Laskus, '12 Stones' captures the remarkable transformation the women of Belsi have undergone and illuminates the idea that you can bring an entire village out of poverty by first empowering its' women, traditionally the most marginalized, to be self-sufficient. Mr Smolan's debut feaure 'Rachel River' was developed at the Sundance Lab and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It won awards for Best Cinematography and a special Jury Prize for actress Viveca Lindfors.

Westly Ferris is in love with his co-worker, Shannon, but she barelyknows he's alive. When he builds up enough courage to ask her out, hefails miserably.But that night Shannon contacts Westly on the internet and offers him asecond chance: the opportunity to get to know her better online. Despite company policy forbidding intra-office relationships, Shannonsuggests an internet relationship, using web cameras and instantmessaging. The two coworkers begin an online romance, talking all nightlong. With each passing night, Westly falls more and more in love withShannon, perceiving her aloofness at work as an attempt to cover-uptheir illicit online relationship. But while Shannon is proving to beeverything Westly hoped she would be, there is still one very importantelement missing from their relationship: physical contact.Shannon makes every effort to fulfill Westly's desire online but theneed for the unobtainable begins to unravel a surprising ruse: Westly'scompany has been setting him up with a series of complex relationshipsto help him learn about love and he is a test subject in a plan to writea program that will teach computers how to love.But in the process, Westly has fallen in love with an unobtainablebeauty and yearns for a normal relationship he now realized he can neverhave.

CARLOS starts his day at the Home Depot, waiting to pick up work. He doesn't know that his abusive boss HENRY will become the catalyst for change he's been waiting for. Nor does TERESA, stuck with her lousy job at the pet shop, and her dead-end relationship with ZACK. He's happy to string her along long enough for him to get together with SIRI, his songwriting partner. But Siri's not ready for anything more than a one night stand with him. She's got unresolved issues with LEE, the father of her son. Lee's trying to keep himself together directing at a tiny theatre in Hollywood. He wants to reunite with Siri, but he's struggling to get SUSAN, his lead actress, to find her role. Susan's can't confront her character's truth, or her own--that her husband TOM is having an affair with one of his students. That student, AMANDA, meanwhile is tired of the illicit afternoons with Tom. She's ready to bust out with JULIA, a bartender who parties more than she should--so far it's cost her custody of her daughter. But reality is about to come knocking on her door in the form of Henry, the man she's known all her life as her uncle. So begins the first of three days destined to spell major changes for this mixed bag of Angelinos, whose lives are connected by invisible threads.

A grab bag of various comedic and dramatic short films.

When its time to move on, make sure your path is clear.

Americans devote vast amounts of money, time, and closet space to their collections. Studies show that 30% of the population of the United States collects something. American Collectors is a documentary that explores why people collect and the impact that collecting has on their everyday lives.

An artist disappears under mysterious circumstances after one of his paintings is connected to a series of miracles.A documentary film crew pieces together details of the story through interviews and archival footage.

What is a good mother? Can a homeless ex-prostitute raise two young children after committing an unthinkable act? The emotionally charged documentary, Athena, chronicles the 6 -month journey of a loving, yet deeply troubled young mother as she wages a struggle to get her daughters out of foster care. With the clock racing, Athena has mere weeks to prove to child welfare officials that she has fulfilled all of the legal requirements necessary to become a 'good mother'. If she fails, Athena will lose her kids forever.

Scott Bateman has taken the sound from the awful 1960 horror film Atom Age Vampire and given it new animated visuals, revealing that the movie is really just a love triangle between a pirate, a stripper, and an evil doctor who sometimes turns into a radioactive monster. Bateman has also provided hilarious onscreen commentary about the action, or lack of it. Scott Bateman animated every frame of the film in Flash; the budget for this movie was quite literally zero.