| Monday 13th | 4.30pm | Kino Cinema |
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How on earth can a pro-capital punishment
crusader and a death row inmate be friends?
That question pulses at the centre of Robert
Blecker Wants Me Dead, an often disturbing,
sometimes funny, documentary film about
passion, murder, and the American death
penalty.
Robert Blecker is one of the country's most
impassioned crusaders for capital punishment.
A self-described 'emotive retributivist,' Blecker
teaches at the New York Law School in lower
Manhattan. From there he conducts his
one-man crusade to save capital punishment
from the mounting wave of moratoriums and
death-row commutations. Blecker teaches
that death is the only just penalty for the worst
of the worst - the small fraction of the nation's
convicted murderers who have surrendered
their right to live by the irredeemable
viciousness of their crime.
Daryl Holton is one of those people. In 1997,
Holton shot his four children to death with
an assault rifle in Shelbyville, Tennessee. For
these crimes, he was given four separate
death sentences.
We see the two men meet during Blecker's
2005 research trip to Riverbend maximumsecurity
prison outside Nashville. For the
next year and a half the condemned man
and the scholar warily spar with one another
through a roller-coaster of death-watches,
postponements and court-ordered stays, all
the while exploring together the meaning of
mercy, justice, and the morality of the death
penalty.
Producer Bruce David Klein
Photography Matthew Howe, Ted Schillinger
Editor Kendrick Simmons
Music Dan Dolan
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| Saturday 18th | 11.00am | Triskel Arts |
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What happens when a wild orca tries to
make friends with people – not for food,
but for companionship? Should humans
welcome him?
Saving Luna is a true story about one such
killer whale, who was nicknamed Luna.
In 2001, when Luna was just a baby, he
found himself alone in Nootka Sound, on
the West Coast of Vancouver Island, more
than 200 miles away from his family. Orcas
normally spend their entire lives together,
but Luna was lost.
Without other whales, Luna tried to make
contact with humans… but law and
science told people to stay away. However,
the same social instincts that drove Luna to
seek companionship also brought people
to him, despite the law.
As Luna got close to people, he became
both treasured and feared. To natives he
was the spirit of a chief. To seafarers he was
an unusual friend. To conservationists he
was a cause. To scientists he was trouble.
To officials he was a danger. As conflict and
tragedy stained the waters, Luna became a
symbol of the world’s wildest beauty: easy
to love, hard to save.
One of the most heart-warming things I
have ever seen - indieWIRE
Producer Suzanne Chisholm
Photography Michael Parfit, Suzanne Chisholm
Script Michael Parfit
Editor Michael Parfit
Music David Parfit, Tobin Stokes
Print Source sjchisholm@aol.com
Website www.savingluna.com
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| Friday 17th | 7.00pm | Triskel Arts |
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Despite living in one of the gay capitals
of the world, 28-year-old Sydney woman
Poppy Stockell is forced online in her
search for love. When she meets 31-
year-old Anglo-Indian Sandeep Virdi, she
thinks she's found the one. Unfortunately,
Sandeep lives at home in the British
Midlands with her conservative Sikh
parents and three younger sisters. And
she has yet to come out to any of them….
Searching 4 Sandeep uses raw, incredibly
frank footage to chart Poppy and Sandeep’s
tumultuous relationship across two years
and three continents.
Ultimately, Searching 4 Sandeep is about
how love is the most important element
of life, and that it’s worth fighting for. I
believed this before I started making the
film, but the process of making it – and
particularly Sandeep’s generosity in helping
me make it – has really crystallised the idea
for me. Now that it’s finished, I can see that
Searching 4 Sandeep is really a kind of
love letter to her. - Director’s Statement
Producer Cecilia Ritchie
Photography Poppy Stockell
Script Poppy Stockell
Editor Anna Craney
Music Abigail Hatherley
Print Source ceciliaritchie@optusnet.com.au
Website www.myspace.com/
searching4sandeep
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