The East Lansing Film Festival - ELFF

Synopsis:

Sixteen years after Linda Riss has acid thrown in her face by Burt Pagach, the couple marry.

Filmmaker Dan Klores recounts the true story of one of the most bizarre romances of the 20th Century in this documentary. In 1957, Linda Riss was a receptionist in her early twenties who bore a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor, while attorney Burt Pugach was married and in his mid-thirties. That didn’t stop Pugach from falling in love with Riss on first sight when he saw her walking past her home in the Bronx, and he quickly asked her out on a date. Riss accepted, and continued to see Pugach even after she discovered he had a wife. However, after a year of wining and dining, Riss broke off the affair, convinced that Pugach would never divorce, but continue to string her along. Pugach desperately tried to convince Riss to give him a second chance and began stalking her, but when that failed and he learned she had decided to wed someone else, he told her, “If I can’t have you, no one else will have you, and when I get through with you, no one else will want you.” Pugach’s statement was no idle threat—a thug hired by Pugach threw lye into Riss’s face in order to scar her for life, and ended up blinding her in one eye. The crime earned Pugach a fifteen-to-thirty year prison sentence, but less than a year after he was released on parole, a peculiar thing happened—Linda Riss and Burt Pugach got married. Crazy Love shares the details of this very strange love affair, and how this extremely unlikely couple has stayed together for thirty years.

“You can’t tear yourself away from these characters. It’s the greatest kind of story - the kind ‘you can’t make up’.”
- David D’Arcy, NPR

Synopsis: Sensual, dreamlike, both intimate and epic, The House of Sand is a cinematic tour de force.Director Andrucha Waddington (Me You Them) tells the story of a young pregnant woman, Aurea, who is taken by her mad husband to the barren coastal desert of northern Brazil. For the next 51 years she tries to escape to a better life for her mother and daughter who are played by the real life mother and daughter, Fernanda Montenegro and Fenanda Torres. Jaw-dropping vistas and poignant acting.

Synopsis: Featuring never-before-seen footage, this fascinating, must-see documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, South America where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.

Synopsis:

A woman of means, played by the transcendent Marina Hands, begins an affair with the gamekeeper on her husband’s estate, opening herself up physically and emotionally in ways she never imagined possible. While the film grapples with emotions in turmoil and the sensual world that grows outside the door of society’s rigid structures, there is also a sense that things are the way they should be, as Lady Chatterley undergoes a spiritual awakening and rebirth. A special screening has been added for Tuesday, December 4 at 7:30pm at the Hannah Community Center.

“Every frame of the film seems alive with a sensuality that is is both wild and intelligent.”
- A.O. Scott, New York Times

Synopsis:

No End in Sight is the most cogent, straightforward dissection of the irresponsible, nearsighted decisions made by the Bush Administration leading up to the Iraq War. Director Ferguson interviews the very generals, ambassadors, and administration staff who had to implement the policies handed down by the triumvirate of Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and L. Paul Bremer. Any person, war junkie or pacifist, will gain insight and knowledge into the four-year war by this compelling, brilliant film. DO NOT MISS IT!

“Prepare to be riveted: No End in Sight, Charles Ferguson’s first film, is without question the most important movie you are likely to see this year.”
- Time

Synopsis: This multiple award-winning film, based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond, follows the two old but different friends (Will Oldham and Daniel London) who reunite to take a weekend camping trip into the cascade mountain range east of Portland, Oregon. The movie's scale is minuscule, but the physical and emotional landscapes it travels are as broad, deep and mysterious as the human psyche itself.

Synopsis: Nikolaus Geyrhalter's beautifully shot and elegantly edited documentary is a silent, impressionistic portrait of agricultural food preparation that vividly illustrates the complexity of the process that puts food on our tables. Our Daily Bread is an eye-opener that handles its themes in a refreshingly nonexploitative and utterly unforgettable manner.

Synopsis:

Enter into a whole new language of symbols and meaning, the likes of which you have rarely encountered in cinema. Ten Canoes is a celebration of the art of storytelling, and of the power of stories to transcend all barriers of space, time, and language. It is also funny.

Set 1000 years ago in an Aboriginal tribe and setting, Dayindi covets one of the wives of his older brother. To teach him the proper way, he is told a story from the mythical past, a story of wrong love, kidnapping, sorcery, bungling mayhem and revenge gone wrong.

“Its mixture of wisdom and whimsy makes this Australian movie feel as timeless as it is timely. And instead of feeling dutifully cultural as we immerse ourselves in this story, we’re genuinely intrigued, touched and even amused.”
- Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Synopsis: This highly acclaimed German film is both a political thriller and human drama about the gradual disillusionment of a dedicated officer in East Germany's all-powerful secret police, the Stasi. Set from 1987 to 1991, Captain Weisler is ordered to eavesdrop on a celebrated dramatist and his popular actress girlfriend. Their vibrant lifestyle and way of thinking slowly makes him realize that his blind faith in totalitarianism is vulnerable. (Winner, 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.) “It's an intricate, ambiguous and deeply satisfying movie, a tautly plotted tale of state surveillance and personal betrayal that ultimately becomes an ode to the transformative power of art”. - Dana Stewart, Slate

Synopsis: WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, the technological breakthrough in automotive history built right here in Lansing. This informative and entertaining documentary examines its cultural and economic ripple effects and how they reverberated through the halls of government and big business.