Films at MOCA with the Jacksonville Film Festival
Around The World in Film at Theatre MOCA
10 Award-winning films Thursdays at 7:30pm
February 5 – April 2 • NEW TIME: 7:30pm
$6 for Members; $8 for Non-Members
Introducing the Films at MOCA Series Pass!
Purchase your film tickets in advance and save.
Each pass includes 9 film admissions:
$42 for Members ($54 Value)
$56 Non Members ($72 Value)
For more information contact (904) 366-6911 ×208, or purchase your series pass today!
February 5
Dohaa (Dark Waters)
Winner- Best International Feature Film at 2008 Jacksonville Film Festival
Raj Paranjpe 2007
Run time: 93 min. | India
Set in rural western India, “Dark Waters,” is the story of physical lust and its horrific consequences for two tender lives. Bhiki, a single mother of three, is the mistress of Vishnu. Bhiki’s daughter, Kamli, on the verge of puberty, is shunned by her classmates. While the village grocer and class bully lust for her, Kamli develops tender feelings for Ajay, who arrives from Mumbai and joins her class. Will the swirling dark waters of poverty and lust destroy Kamli’s innocence and her capacity to love tenderly or will she survive to grow stronger? Based on the Marathi novella “Kaleshar Pani” by noted author H.M. Marathe, the film presents a portrait of an impoverished rural life in India.
February 12
Familia Tortuga (Turtle Family)
Rubén Imaz Castro 2006
Run time: 120 min. | Mexico
On the eve of a special day, the family bonds, faced with a shared sentiment of a regretted absence, appear fragile. Uncle Manuel, a remarkable man, is determined to help his adolescent nephews and support his brother-in-law, an unemployed unionist. The mother’s home is now a place where the family, amid lost dreams, is in danger of disintegration. “La Familia Tortuga” is a tender, moving story about a family of three generations in modern day Mexico.
February 19
Unrelated
Joanna Hoag 2007
Run time: 100 min. | Great Britain
Writer/director Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated is an exceptional directorial debut. Lonely forty-something Anna is childless and her unhappy marriage is crumbling. A holiday with old friends teases her with glimpses of a jubilant life she could have lived. As sexual tensions bubble under the surface, Anna faces new opportunities, but must come to terms with old problems.
February 26
Homeland
Michael Eldrige 2007
Run time: 95 min. | Israel
Upon completing his service in the Israel Defense Forces, Kobi Zucker needed to get away from the ongoing struggles of the Middle East. With memories of his tour of duty in the territories fresh in his mind, he comes to New York City on his way to South America. While working to earn money for his trip, Kobi meets the girl of his dreams. Beautiful and intelligent, Leila is everything that Kobi has ever wanted. But Leila is Palestinian, having come to New York from the West Bank with her family following the death of her oldest brother during the Intifada. Despite their differences, Kobi and Leila fall in love, but can this love overcome the ancient hatreds and unhealed wounds dividing Israelis and Palestinians?
March 5
More Shoes
Lee Kazimir 2008
Run time: 75 min. | Spain/Ukraine
Struggling filmmaker Lee Kazmir reads the words of Werner Herzog, who advises that one could learn what the art of cinema truly means by “walking alone for 5,000 kilometers – let’s say from Madrid to Kiev.” Kazmir takes the advice literally and sets out from Madrid to cross most of Europe on foot. Overcoming physical struggles, language barriers, and his own mental isolation, he meets a cast of characters along the way who teach him his greatest lessons. Through encounters both heartrending and hilarious, Kazmir begins to realize that to understand filmmaking, he will first have to understand life itself.
March 12
Secret Trip
China Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio 2006
Run time: 92 min. | China/USA
A feature documentary from the China Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio about China’s postwar diplomatic missions and chronicling the experiences of the famous Communist politician Zhou Enlai and his secret meetings with Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Full of previously unseen archive footage.
March 19
Invisibles
Wenders, Coixet, León de Aranoa, Corcuera, Barroso 2007
Produced by acclaimed Academy Award winning actor Javier Bardem.
Run Time: 100 min | Columbia, Spain, Congo, Unganda, Central Arfrican Republic
The Doctors Without Borders organization sponsored this five-piece documentary on atrocities being committed and inflicted upon the underrepresented and poverty stricken around the world. These five filmmakers each create a heartbreaking vision of the state of affairs currently seen throughout towns and villages destroyed by war, famine, disease, and chaos. Focusing on individuals in Barcelona, the Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic, and Colombia, the five shorts relate the painful conditions that these people are living in and all the agony they have suffered.
March 26
Fields of Demeter
Knut Krzywinski 2007
Run time: 48min. | Norway/Europe
The film highlights the life values of the people for whom European landscape is their homeland. The landscape is not only a physical entity; but has an intellectual content. Memories, myths, and ideas relating to the land are invisible factors. The film focus on relations between the younger generation and the European landscape heritage and how involvement by the coming generation will mitigate landscape diversity loss. “Fields of Demeter” is a voyage through the visible and invisible European cultural landscape. With the power of the eagle two young girls set out on a journey to experience the history, diversity, myths and people in the cultural landscape.
Beyond the Call
Adrian Belic 2006
Run time: 75 min. | Asia/Africa
From the brothers behind the Academy Award nominated feature documentary Genghis Blues, comes the next great adventure. In an Indiana Jones meets Mother Teresa adventure, three middle-aged men, former soldiers and modern-day knights, travel the world delivering life saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians and doctors in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places on Earth, the front lines of war. Ed Artis, Jim Laws and Walt Ratterman are self-styled Knights of Malta, and in 1995, they formed Knightsbridge International, a unique humanitarian aid organization, whose motto is “High Adventure and Service to Humanity. Their specialty is going where death from land-mines, bullets, or bombs is as frequent as death from hunger, disease, or the elements. Their personal convictions and courage drive them to places such as Afghanistan, Albania, Chechnya, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand, Rwanda and the southern Philippines, on a journey into the heart of humanity and the soul of courage.
April 2
The Birthday
Winner – Best International Feature documentary – 2008 Jacksonville Film Festival
Negin Kianfar, Daisy Mohr 2007
Run time: 63 min. | Iran
Iran’s surprisingly liberal policies regarding transsexuality are explored in this illuminating documentary profiling male-to-females and one female-to-male in the Islamic society. Because the Koran doesn’t say anything about transsexuality, unlike homosexuality, it is not forbidden-Ayatollah Khomeini himself granted religious permission for surgeries. The Birthday focuses on one male-to-female’s transition and her relationship with family members who question why a man would willingly take on a female’s subservient position in Iranian society.