Gasparilla International Film Festival

Join the museum one night each month for viewing and discussion of a selected film from the annual GIFF schedule. This takes place beginning February 10, 2012 at 7:00 pm and will occur every second Friday of the month. Titles listed below.

GIFF members: FREE

Museum members, students, seniors: $5

Non-members: $8

February 10

AMNESTY (AMNISTIA), dir. Bujar Alimani, Albania, 2011**

A new law allowing conjugal visits in Albanian prisons presents the opportunity for a sympathetic affair between a man and woman visiting their incarcerated spouses—until a prisoner amnesty threatens their fragile new bond.

March 9

CRAFT (RISCADO), dir. Gustavo Pizzi, Brazil, 2011

A struggling actress and celebrity impersonator lands an audition and what may be her “big break” after an inspired director recasts his film around her socially marginalized life as an underrated artist in Rio.

April 13

FAT, BALD, SHORT MAN (GORDO, CALVO Y BAJITO), dir. Carlos Osuna, Colombia, 2011

The prospects for a lonely middle-aged notary unexpectedly change after he joins a self-improvement group and his charismatic new boss—and strangely affable doppelgänger—takes an interest in his life.

May 11

THE FINGER (EL DEDO), dir. Sergio Teubal, Argentina, 2011

In the face of electoral fraud and intimidation, the severed finger of a respected local leader points the way forward for independent-minded citizens and their town’s quest for democracy after dictatorship.

June 8

GREY MATTER (MATIÈRE GRISE), dir. Kivu Ruhorahoza, Rwanda, 2011

After government officials decline to support his project, a determined filmmaker enlists the support of a loan shark to finance his trenchant drama about the aftermath and impact of genocide on a brother and sister.

July 13

MOURNING (SOOG), dir. Morteza Farshbaf, Iran, 2011*

In the wake of his parents’ disappearance, a young boy is placed in the care of his deaf aunt and uncle who, during a road trip to Tehran, engage in a silent but apparently not-so-secret debate about the child’s future.

August 11

PEGASUS (PEGASE), dir. Mohamed Mouftakir, Morocco, 2011 

A young woman, traumatized by her dictatorial father’s insistence she be raised as a boy, finds herself the unwitting patient of a psychiatrist intent on learning the truth behind the girl’s story.

September 14

THE PRIZE (EL PREMIO), dir. Paula Markovitch, Argentina/Mexico, 2011 

A political activist’s life-in-hiding on an isolated stretch of Argentina’s coastline is jeopardized after her seven-year-old daughter is selected to participate in a local school’s patriotic essay contest.

October 12

QARANTINA, dir. Oday Rasheed, Iraq, 2011 

A sullen assassin, living above a dysfunctional family in Baghdad, captures the attention of the household’s unhappy mother, setting a dangerous stage for confrontation with the family’s lecherous father.

November 9

TOLL BOOTH (GIŞE MEMURU), dir. Tolga Karaçelik, Turkey, 2010*

An aging toll booth attendant, straining under the weight of a domineering father and suffocating work routine, finally begins to crack when faced with the emotional pressure of an unexpected romance.

December 14

Global Lens 2012 will also present the award-winning coming-of-age narrative, STOLEN LIFE (dir. Li Shaohong, China) as part of the Initiative's retrospective program, Chairman's Choice, which was established in 2009 to reintroduce exceptional films from the Global Lens Collection for theatrical exhibition. STOLEN LIFE originally appeared in Global Lens 2006.

* indicates U.S. premiere  

** indicates U.S. premiere and official submission to Foreign Language category of 84th Academy Awards

 About the Global Film Initiative

The Global Film Initiative is a U.S.-based, 501(c)3 organization specializing in the acquisition, distribution and support of independent film from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Founded in 2002 with the mission of promoting cross-cultural understanding through the universal language of cinema, each year the Initiative awards numerous grants to deserving filmmakers from around the world, and supports a touring film series entitled Global Lens. For more information about the Global Lens film series and Global Film Initiative programs, please visit: http://www.globalfilm.org.