Santa Cruz Film Festival
www.santacruzfilmfestival.com

Friday, May 13
www.santacruzfilmfestival.com/html/program.html

Rio Theater

4:00 PM (Rio Theater)

THIS DIVIDED STATE Steven Greenstreet 92 min
This 25-year-old Utah doc filmmaker is one to watch. When filmmaker Michael Moore announced in September 2004 that he would visit the lion's den of Republican Utah two weeks before the Presidential Elections. What followed was an unprecedented uproar from the community of Orem, Utah who resorted to death threats, bribery, and lawsuits in order to prevent Moore's arrival to Utah Valley State College.
An explosion of outrage tore the community apart and those once apathetic to political views rose to the front lines. So began a heated war of protest, lawsuits, and death threats. Would conservative activists prevent Michael Moore from coming? Would liberal Utahans win out their fight for Freedom of Speech? Would Sean Hannity come to town to fuel the fire? The answer lies somewhere within This Divided State.

6:00 PM (Rio Theater)

WAITING TO INHALE Jed Riffe 85 min
Sponsored by The Compassion Flower Inn
Waiting to Inhale examines the current debate over legalizing medical marijuana in the United States. What are the claims being made, and what are the stakes? Ten states have passed legislation permitting medical marijuana, but opponents claim that patients who advocate legalization are only smokescreens for the legalization of marijuana altogether.
Waiting to Inhale explores every side of the conflict, taking viewers inside the lives of individuals whose lives have been uniquely affected by terminal illness and drug use. Is marijuana really a gateway drug? Is there scientific evidence to support the claim that marijuana can treat the painful symptoms of illnesses such as cancer, AIDS and multiples sclerosis? The film sheds new light on this controversial struggle, presenting exclusive access to the first medical studies on smoked cannabis to take place in over thirty years. The film features Valerie and Mike Corral as well as other members of the WAMM farm in Santa Cruz.

Director and Producer Jed Riffe, Co-Producer and Writer Katherine Covell
will be present to answer any questions having to do with the film itself, but will leave discussion of the issues surrounding medical marijuana to the panelists.

The following panelists will discuss their perspectives on the debate over the legalization of medical marijuana.
Valerie Corral - Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Wo/Man's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. She is also a patient with epilepsy.
Mike Corral - Co-Founder and Agricultural Director of the Wo/Man's Alliance for Medical Marijuana
Suzanne Pfeil - WAMM board member and Post Polio Syndrome patient
Bruce Merkin - Spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project
Dr. Arnold Leff, a doctor for WAMM based in Santa Cruz who served on President Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, or Yvonne Westbrook, a multiple sclerosis patient who has been active in the fight to legalize medical marijuana and is featured in our film.

8:00 PM SUNSHINE DAYDREAM (Rio Theater)

Closing Night
$20.00

sponsored by
seebrightproductions.com
emeraldcityentertainment.com
A portion of Closing Night’s proceeds to benefit The Rex Foundation
The Rex Foundation continues to embody the spirit of generosity and concern that evolved in the culture of the Dead Heads and the Grateful Dead as we carry out our mission: We aim to help secure a healthy environment, promote individuality in the arts, provide support to critical and necessary social services, assist others less fortunate than ourselves, protect the rights of indigenous people and ensure their cultural survival, build a stronger community and educate children and adults everywhere.
Established in 1984, Rex Foundation has granted almost $8 million to some 1,000 grassroots programs across the United States and internationally. We generally support programs that might be overlooked or fall under the radar screen of mainstream funders, yet do bold, innovative and sometimes controversial work to bring about helpful solutions to challenging situations.
Since 2001, Rex Foundation has been renewing its grant making capacity in the absence of direct funding from Grateful Dead concerts. Through the generous direct support of contributors, volunteers, event organizers and performers – as evidenced by this screening at the Santa Cruz Film Festival - Rex Foundation is building a large, grassroots philanthropic community, depicted by our Rex Community Caravan. We look forward to growing the Caravan with lots of new riders over the next 20 years. Visit www.rexfoundation.org for more information.

SUNSHINE DAYDREAM Sam Field 105 min
Sam writes, “The Grateful Dead had recently returned from a triumphal tour of Europe (’72) where the filmmakers purchased the then state of the art miniaturized equipment, a Swiss made Stellavox field recorder and an Éclair ACL 16mm camera.

The plot was to develop a signature visual style of representing the band: a camera for each of the 16 channels (at least!) emphasizing the visual kinetics of the music making itself as well as the enormous open communication within the band. The first agreed upon project was to put together a thirty-minute replacement for the KQED tape the band had been using for promotion on tour.

Pigpen had just retired from the road and Mickey was in self-imposed exile. Keith and Donna had just joined the band. The band was on a roll and in tight formation. The Alembic PA was churning out the ripest, highest amplitude primary colors ever hallucinated. Some say it was our apogee.

Suddenly Chuck Kesey was camped out at the crossroads of the Grateful Dead office, obstructing all traffic until he got an answer: Would the band play a benefit for the Springfield Creamery? Fred, the Kesey paterfamilias, had passed away leaving an indebtedness to the Federal Milk Fund or some such, and Chuck and Sue were just tooling up the Nancy’s yogurt enterprise and they were in danger of losing the family farm and the Dead said yes.

Sam Cutler called the filmmakers and suggested they join forces with Far West Action Picture Services, the then incarnation of the Pranksters film-making adventures. This was a much greater first project than originally contemplated, however, the filmmakers acceded with alacrity.

Ron Wickersham of Alembic agreed to record in 16-track and to devise a method whereby all the different cameras could each find sync with the recording.

From the get-go the benefit was a charmed event, emblematic of everything our tribe aspired to. In the meadow that was to become the home of the Oregon Country Fair, hippies pulled together, built a stage and threw themselves a party to celebrate and help out a neighbor, The Springfield Creamery. Perhaps the only bewildered guy on the scene was the straight piano tuner who brought Keith’s piano.

On the day of the show, the temperature would rise to 105 degrees, everyone would get dosed, nobody would get hurt and the band would soldier through into territories seldom visited. The heat washed away any preconceptions and when the Sun stole the music, Jerry would fight back and haul it in, onto his frets again. The band played heroically.

We were all suitably scrambled. Film magazines didn’t come fast enough because the changers had melted or become distracted, cameramen went off into enchanted but unintelligible directions of wobble and warp. By the time Jack Straw rolled around the earthquakes had slowed down and the camerawork improved. Much of the warpedness was considered unacceptable at the time but today it lends a certain authenticity.

We didn’t, by any means, shoot every song. We shot what we thought would be good candidates for the thirty minute project. The band delivered a stellar thirty-minute (exactly!) Dark Star that would have made a fabulous if enigmatic release at the same time Watergate was breaking.

That project was hijacked by the notion that what we had was far more than a few precious stones; we had an ornament. It’s taken over thirty years for the half-life of that notion to become true. In the intervening years the film spent most of its life in the pump house of the producer, Sam Field.

A couple of years ago, at the behest of Dennis McNally who wanted to screen it in conjunction with the release of his book, we brought it up to date, digitizing and adding two new songs to the original cut: a wonderfully emotive Bird Song and a twilight Sing Me Back Home that, because of it’s fading images, can’t help but move you.

Most of the rest of the film is as it was the day it was set aside including the animation sequences in Dark Star which, due to lack of band footage, were patched in pretty much willy-nilly from old work print provided by Dennis Pohl, a New York filmmaker. We had intended he would create original, syncopated work for the final film.

There are still a few more miles to go, fine tuning the edit, remixing the sound, before we get to the final technical hurdle, conforming 1972 technology to current DVD standards, but with patience and perseverance this may someday, be available to all�.
Thanks Sam, I couldn’t have said it any better!

GROWING UP Anna Gabriel 40 min
"Growing Up on Tour" follows Peter Gabriel on the Growing Up tour of 2002. With his eldest daughter filming, his second daughter singing and his new wife and baby joining him on the road, Gabriel juggles his lives as a musician and as a regular family man. The highs, the lows, the sublime, the ridiculous, the fathers, sisters, brothers, band members and road crew: Anna Gabriel's knowing eye reveals an inventive and intimate portrait of family life on tour.

Seventh inning stretch

Director’s Dinner Sponsored by Malabar
Sri Lankan Cuisine
1116 Soquel Ave.
423 7906

10:00 PM (Rio Theater)

Closing Night Party
Pass holders and ticket holders only.
Local musicians turn on their love light.

Thomas Cunningham & the Loco Focos
SCFF ‘04 Opening Night band returns! Thomas Cunningham and his 4-piece acoustic pop/rock band (the Loco Focos) are sure to chill your vibe and soothe your soul, casting visions of palm trees, tropical paradise, and a good bottle of wine. Although many have compared Thomas Cunningham's music to the likes of Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, John Mayer, and Nick Drake, he delivers engaging lyrics and soulful melodies through his own unique, rich and organic approach.

Thanks every one for showing up!