Santa Cruz Film Festival
www.santacruzfilmfestival.com

Thursday, May 12
www.santacruzfilmfestival.com/html/program.html

The Riverfront Theater

3:00PM (Riverfront Theater)

60 SPINS AROUND THE SUN Laura Kightlinger 60 min
60 Spins tells the story of Randy Credico a showbiz flameout who has spent the last twenty years lending his voice to unsung causes, from his support of the Sandinista and Jimmy Hoffa Jr., to his fight against racial profiling and New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws.
The film also explores Randy’s flaws and foibles, from his professional fatal appearance on Carson to his humiliating stint as H.R. Puf-n-Stuf. Ex-girlfriends, so-workers, and show-biz luminaries like Larry David and Colin Quinn pepper this bizarre portrait with their insights.
Part political conscious-raiser and part show-business expose, 60 Spins is ultimately, a poignant account of an underappreciated mold breaker whose heart, energy and passion-even if all over the place-are always in the right place.

JOKEBITCH Tom Ellis 30 min
Fate throws a depressed New York comic into a nightmare world of sex and violence. After a particularly unremarkable performance in an out of the way club, Artie Sims is visited by his successful buddy Jackie, an established television star, who attempts to cheer him up with what he describes as the ultimate on line experience, a web cam sex community. Bemused though skeptical, our hero logs on and his life is changed forever when he witnesses the brutal death of a gorgeous woman at the hands of a laughing madman...or did he? Mixing comedy with elements of the thriller, joke bitch hurtles towards it's surprise ending, where fate waits with the punch line of it's own wicked joke

5:00 PM WAR IN THE WORLD (Riverfront Theater)

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR Terry L. Benedict 101 min
The inspiring story of pfc Desmond Doss, A Conscientious Objector and Army Medic in World War II, who overcame incredible odds in saving the lives of 75 soldiers in 12 hours, high on the 400 ft Maeda Escarpment, a.k.a. Hacksaw Ridge, on the island of Okinawa, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Not all war heroes carry a weapon, some carry faith -- Presidents Honor Him -- Generals Salute Him, A True Story of an American Patriot.
For 50 years, Hollywood has wanted to tell the story of Desmond Doss, A reluctant Conscientious Objector, Desmond was desperate to serve his country even though his beliefs would not allow him to kill another human being. Refusing the deferment offered to him, he trained to become a combat medic. Desmond developed a reputation as one of the most fearless medics in the battles of Guam, Leyte, and Okinawa, known as “The Hell Hole of the Pacific.� Soldiers who alienated and ridiculed Desmond during combat training saw him demonstrate extraordinary strength of character and courage on the battlefield. His unyielding convictions and selfless acts of courage in saving the lives of the very men who ridiculed him won him their awe and respect as he emerged from the war as one of America’s greatest military heroes. “The Conscientious Objector� explores the nature of Desmond’s heroism and searched out survivors of the 77th Infantry Division who were witness to Desmond’s actions as well as those rescued by him. With a cinematic approach that captures powerful and inspiring interviews with Desmond Doss, his family, and the few remaining Veterans, their stories reveal the many sacrifices that Desmond made. For the first time in 56 years, they reunite with their medic on the Maeda Escarpment, on the island of Okinawa, where this amazing story took place.

ANNA UND DER SOLDAT Steffen Schroeder 10 min. Germany
An 18-year-old Italian girl Anna is haunted by her past. In 1944 she lost her family in a massacre by the German Wehrmacht. When one of the soldiers returns six years later, the moment of revenge has come…

SOMEWHERE NEAR KOKODA Brad Haynes 11min Australia
It is 1942 and two Australians are pinned down deep in the dense jungle of the Owen Stanley Ranges facing an enemy they cannot see.


7:30 PM A WORLD OF PROMISE (Riverfront Theater)

THE LOSS OF NAMELESS THINGS Bill Rose 103 min
This brilliant documentary focuses us on Oakley Hall, a 28 year old playwright with a reputation for genius and on the verge of national recognition when head injuries from a mysterious fall from a bridge took away his artistic life away.
TLONT is a haunting story of Hall’s fall from impending stardom, and what happens when, twenty-five years later, a theater company stages the very play he was writing the night he fell.

TALES FROM THE MIDWAY Vadim Oss 4min.
An animated wood –carving carnival brings memories of love, lust and broken dreams from a 1930’2 midway.

9:30 PM (Riverfront Theater)

STAY UNTIL TOMORROW Laura Colella 1: 31 min
This funny and kaleidoscopic film centers on Nina, a former teenage soap star who abandoned her career to go to college, and then dropped out of college to travel the world. In the several years since, she has remained attached to the adventurous lifestyle of a transcontinental drifter.
Back home for a few weeks, she drops in unannounced on her childhood friend Jim, and asks if she can crash with him for a few days. Jim, a librarian, readily agrees despite having just begun an intense relationship with a young coworker.
Nina's days at Jim's turn into weeks, as she tries to learn Italian at the library for her next job in Sicily. But she encounters (and creates) many more distractions than anticipated, transforming Jim's workplace into a site of comic, literary, and sexual escapades.
The Actor Playing Jim longs to salvage their film from art-house obscurity, but 'Stay Until Tomorrow' is irredeemably uncooperative. Like its heroine Nina, the film celebrates beauty, unpredictability, and the potential richness of experience.

Director’s Dinner Sponsored by Café Mare
740 Front St #100
458.1212

10:00 PM - ?
SURF CINEMA at Club Caution
Pass holders free. 5.00 to general public over 21 only
516 Front Street
831-425-CLUB
_www.clubcaution.net
Size does matter!
Play Hard ... Play Safe!

Surf Cinema is an instrumental-soundtrack band and a collage of surf, beach party, spy movie, car crash, western, sitcom, kitsch, and clay-mation clips to project live on stage behind the band to form "Surf Cinema". It's a slight twist from traditional surf and a bit more visually entertaining.
The band has shared the stage with Dick Dale, The Red Elvises, and many other bands up and down the west coast. www.surfcinema.net