*Environmental Film Festival = EFF

Bambara

Moolaade
Directed by Ousmane Sembene
(Burkina Faso, 2004, 124 min.)
After losing two daughters in childbirth due to her own botched circumcision, Collé has refused to allow her surviving daughter to be cut. So when four girls escape the circumcision ceremony, she is only too eager to provide them with moolaadé (protection). (Bambara and French)
The Avalon Theatre
Wed., March 16, 8 p.m.

Czech

Changes
(Promeny)
Directed by Tomás Rehorek
(Czech Republic/Italy, 2009, 79 min.)
Four interconnected story lines portray the destinies of ordinary people: a wealthy couple dealing with their infertility; a disadvantaged mother of two small children; a middle-age asocial workaholic man; and an older woman, reflecting on her life in the hope of finding new meaning.
The Avalon Theatre
Wed., March 9, 8 p.m.

Dutch

Win/win
Directed by Jaap van Heusden
(Netherlands, 2010)
A playful “nobody” at a famous investment bank becomes a successful trader overnight, but he feels increasingly alienated from himself and the world around him.
Theater TBA
Opens Fri., March 25

English

Contact
Directed by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler
(Australia, 2009, 80 min.)
While the British and Australian governments were testing space rockets, members of the nomadic indigenous population in western Australia were still living off the land, unaware that modern society would eventually remove them from their homeland. (EFF)
Carnegie Institution for Science
Sun., March 27, 5 p.m.

The Eagle Hunter’s Son
(Die Stimme des Adlers)
Directed by René Bo Hansen
(Germany/Sweden, 2009, 97 min.)
After startling his father’s eagle at a festival, a restless 13-year-old nomad from western Mongolia and son of a Kazakh eagle hunter sets off on a quest to retrieve the beloved bird, discovering the importance of customs, loyalty and respect for nature along the way. (EFF)
National Geographic Society
Sat., March 26, 1 p.m.

Inside the Firestorm
Directed by Jacob Hickey
(Australia, 2010, 110 min.)
On Feb. 7, 2009, Australia suffered its worst peacetime disaster: The devastating fire known as “Black Saturday” claimed 173 lives and destroyed close to half a million hectares of Victorian bush land. One year later, “Inside the Firestorm” tells the story of what happened. (EFF)
Embassy of Australia
Mon., March 21, 7 p.m.

Jamaica Inn
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(U.K., 1939, 105 min.)
Eighteen-year-old Maureen O’Hara, having recently lost her mother in Ireland, travels to her stay with her aunt in Cornwall seeking refuge, but instead finds Gothic intrigue.
AFI Silver Theatre
Tue., March 22, 9:10 p.m.,
Wed., March 23, 9:10 p.m.

The Lady Vanishes
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(U.K., 1938, 97 min.)
Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood become embroiled in a mystery aboard a transcontinental train after Lockwood witnesses the strange disappearance of a fellow traveler.
AFI Silver Theatre
March 25 to 31

The Last Lions
Directed by Dereck Joubert
(U.S., 2011, 89 min.)
Fifty years ago there were close to 500,000 lions in Africa. Today there are around 20,000. To make matters worse, lions, unlike elephants, which are far more numerous, have virtually no protection under government mandates or international accords. This is the jumping-off point for a disturbing, well-researched and beautifully made cri de coeur from husband and wife Dereck and Beverly Joubert.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

The Light Bulb Conspiracy
Directed by Cosima Dannoritzer
(Spain/France, 2010, 75 min.)
Does an everlasting light bulb really exist? Why are millions of computers being shipped around the world to be dumped, rather than repaired? “The Light Bulb Conspiracy” traces a century of planned obsolescence — or the deliberate shortening of a product’s life span to ensure consumer demand. (EFF)
Edmund Burke School
Thu., March 17, 7 p.m.

Miral
Directed by Julian Schnabel
(France/Israel/Italy/India, 2010, 112 min.)
An orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of the first Arab-Israeli war finds herself drawn into the conflict.
Theater TBA
Opens Fri., March 25

No Place Like Home
Directed by Perry Henzell
(U.S./Jamaica, 2006)
When a New York film producer goes to Jamaica to shoot a shampoo commercial, she finds herself drifting further away from the world she knows and into the life of the island, a strange alternative reality that turns many of her previously held assumptions upside down.
Organization of American States
Wed., March 16, 6 p.m.

Oil Rocks – City Above the Sea
(La Citö du Pötrole)
Directed by Marc Wolfensberger
(Switzerland/ Azerbaijan, 2009, 52 min.)
Commissioned by Stalin in 1949, Oil Rocks is the first and largest offshore oil city ever built — and despite two-thirds of its infrastructure having been reclaimed by the sea, the city still stands as a vast, sprawling island of oil platforms. (EFF)
Embassy of Switzerland
Wed., March 16, 7 p.m.

Oka! Amerikee
Directed by Lavinia Currier
(U.S./Central African Republic, 2010, 106 min.)
Deep in the vast equatorial forest, one ancient tribe remains: the Bayaka pygmy people of Central Africa, among the last hunter-gatherers on earth. (EFF)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Tue., March 15, 7 p.m.

Paul
Directed by Greg Mottola
(Spain/France/U.K./U.S., 2011)
Two British comic-book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.
Theater TBA
Opens Fri., March 18

The Pipe
Directed by Risteard Domhnaill
(Ireland, 2010, 83 min.)
An Irish community becomes tragically divided over a Shell oil pipeline that could bring economic prosperity or the destruction to a way of life shared for generations. (EFF)
AFI Silver Theatre
Fri., March 25, 7:15 p.m.
Carnegie Institution for Science
Tue., March 15, 7 p.m.

Planeat
Directed by Shelley Lee Davies and Or Shlomi
(U.K., 2010, 74 min.)
This U.S. Premiere tells the story of the scientists, farmers and chefs tackling one of the greatest problems of our age, the West’s love affair with meat and dairy. (EFF)
Carnegie Institution for Science
Thu., March 24, 6:30 p.m.

Plastic Planet
Directed by Werner Boote
(Austria/Germany, 2009, 95 min.)
Documentary filmmaker Werner Boote examines the far-reaching effects of plastics — which are cheap and practical, but it takes up to 500 years for them to disintegrate and in doing so they release toxins that may harm our hormonal system. (EFF)
Embassy of Austria
Fri., March 18, 7:30 p.m.

The Polar Explorer
Directed by Mark Terry
(Canada, 2011, 60 min.)
Visiting the most remote and mysterious parts of our planet, this documentary presents a complete scientific profile of our rapidly changing polar regions. (EFF)
Embassy of Canada
Tue., March 15, 6 and 8 p.m.

The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island
Directed by Suzanne Raes
(Netherlands, 2009, 87 min.)
A group of Greenpeace pioneers now living on a small New Zealand island look back on their lives as environmental activists. (EFF)
Royal Netherlands Embassy
Thu., March 17, 6:30 p.m.

Sabotage
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(U.K., 1936, 76 min.)
Suspecting London cinema operator Oscar Homolka of terrorist activity, Scotland Yard detective John Loder goes undercover, ingratiating himself with Homolka’s American wife and her young brother, but not in time to uncover Homolka’s latest plot.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., March 12, 1 p.m.,
Sun., March 13, 1 p.m.

Secret Agent
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(U.K., 1936, 86 min.)
A novelist-turned-soldier accepts a new identity and a spy mission to Switzerland, where he’s teamed with a high-living assassin and the beautiful Madeleine Carroll, a fellow agent assigned cover as his wife.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., March 5, 1 p.m.,
Sun., March 6, 7 p.m.

SistaGod
Directed by Yao Ramesar
(Trinidad and Tobago, 2006, 72 min.)
Born to a white American soldier and a black Trinidadian woman, Mari is exposed to death at an early age, cheating it to eventually become a harbinger of death itself as a “messiah.”
Organization of American States
Wed., March 9, 6 p.m.

When China Met Africa
Directed by Nick and Marc Francis
(U.K./France, 2010, 75 min.)
A historic gathering of more than 50 African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia, where the lives of three characters unfold. (EFF)
Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars
Wed., March 16, 12 p.m.

White Lion
Directed by Michael Swan
(South Africa, 2010, 88 min.)
According to the legend of the Shangaan people, white lions are the messengers of the gods, but it has been years since one has been seen in their remote African valley, so when one is miraculously born, a young Shangaan finds himself destined to protect this rare and magnificent creature at all costs. (EFF)
The Avalon Theatre
Sat., March 19, 10:30 a.m.

Yasuni: Two Seconds of Life
Directed by Leonardo Wild
(Ecuador, 2010, 90 min.)
In 2007, Ecuador’s government made an unprecedented proposal: to protect one of the world’s most bio-diverse ecosystems by leaving the country’s underground oil unexploited. But why did a nation like Ecuador, whose budget depends on oil exports, decide to take such a step? (EFF)
Embassy of Ecuador
Thu., March 24, 7 p.m.

Young and Innocent
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(U.K., 1937, 82 min.)
An aspiring screenwriter is wrongly accused of murdering an actress he was involved with, and goes on the lam in the English countryside until he can clear his name.
AFI Silver Theatre
Mon., March 21, 7:20 p.m.,
Tue., March 22, 7:20 p.m.

Finnish

Backwood Philosopher
(Havukka-Ahon Ajattelija)
Directed by Kari Vâânânen
(Finland, 2009, 105 min.)
Two university biologists and an uneducated but smart lumberjack set out on a journey through the remote backwoods of eastern Finland to learn about science, history and human nature. (EFF)
Embassy of Finland
Wed., March 23, 6 p.m.

French

L’Arnacoeur
(The Heartbreaker)
Directed by Pascal Chaumeil
(France/Monaco, 2010, 105 min.)
Through elaborately constructed scenarios, Alex, a master of seduction, is hired to woo young women away from their unsuitable fiancés and make them realize they are not properly in love — until he meets a woman he wants to woo for himself.
Letelier Theater
Thu., March 10, 7 p.m.

Black Ocean
(Noir Ocean)
Directed by Marion Hânsel
(Belgium/France/Germany, 2010, 87 min.)
Three teenage sailors try to beat their solitude amid the daily routines aboard a French naval vessel in 1972, at an ominous time when France conducted extensive nuclear testing over the Pacific Ocean. (EFF)
Embassy of France
Mon., March 21, 7 p.m.

Déchaînée
(Unleashed)
Directed by Raymond Vouillamoz
(Switzerland, 2010, 90 min.)
Lucy, a Swiss TV intern, discovers a mysterious double of herself in archival footage — a woman who turns out to be an infamous feminist and abortion activist, and possibly Lucy’s real grandmother, exposing family secrets.
La Maison Française
Wed., March 8, 7 p.m.

Of Gods and Men
(Des hommes et des dieux)
Directed by Xavier Beauvois
(France, 2010, 120 min.)
Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s, but when a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, the monks must decide whether to stay or leave.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., March 11

Nénette
Directed by Nicholas Philibert
(France, 2010, 67 min.)
Born in 1969 in the forests of Borneo, Nénette the orangutan has just turned 40 and has been the undisputed star of the Paris zoo since 1972, spending more time there than any member of her staff.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Où vas-tu Moshé?
(Where Are You Going Moshé?)
Directed by Hassan Benjelloun
(Morocco/Canada, 2007, 90 min.)
In a dusty Moroccan hamlet, bar owner Mustapha has a problem: Faced with Islamic law that prohibits the drinking of alcohol by Muslims and the imminent departure of the town’s Jewish residents (who are leaving for Israel in the wake of Morocco’s independence), he’ll soon be out of business. But if he can keep just one Jew in town, the law will not make him close his bar. (French and Arabic)
La Maison Française
Wed., March 30, 7 p.m.

German

Bodmers Journey
(Bodmers Reise)
Directed by Luke Gasser
(Switzerland, 2010, 94 min.)
In 1832, German ethnologist Prince Maximilian zu Wied and the young Swiss artist Karl Bodmer set out on a long and adventurous journey into the vast prairies of North America to explore and document the Native Americans. (EFF)
Embassy of Switzerland
Mon., March 21, 7 p.m.

Late Bloomers
(Die Herbstzeitlosen)
Directed by Bettina Oberli
(Germany, 2006, 90 min.)
By turning the traditional corner shop into a seductive lingerie store, a group of old gals bring chaos to a sleepy Swiss village.
Goethe-Institut
Mon., March 7, 6:30 p.m.

Under the Sun
(Unter der Sonne)
Directed by Baran bo Odar
(Germany, 2006, 60 min.)
During a steamy summer in Germany in 1984, a young boy wrapped up in his own world is sent to his aunt for a weekend, but if he hadn’t gone, perhaps the incident at the bridge would have never happened…
Goethe-Institut
Mon., March 14, 6:30 p.m.

When We Leave
(Die Fremde)
Directed by Feo Aladag
(Germany, 2010, 115 min.)
A young woman of Turkish descent fights for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against the resistance of her family. (German and Turkish)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

Greek

The Four Seasons of the Law
(I earini synaxis ton agrofylakon)
Directed by Dimos Avdeliodis
(Greece, 1999, 178 min.)
In a small Greek village in the 1960s, when the local field watchman dies, the agronomist must assign a new field watchman to be responsible for the village, but as four different people take the job, each fails one after the other.
The Avalon Theatre
Wed., March 2, 8 p.m.
 

Hebrew

The Matchmaker (Once I Was)
Directed by Avi Nesher
(Israel, 2010, 112 min.)
A teenage boy growing up in Haifa in 1968 discovers a new world — built on an old one — when he gets a job working for a mysterious Holocaust survivor, who has an office behind a movie theater run by a family of seven Romanian dwarves in the seedy area by the port.
The Avalon Theatre
Wed., March 23, 8 p.m. 

Italian

1860 (I Mille di Garibaldi)
Directed by Alessandro Blasetti
(Italy, 1933, 73 min.)
A complex and fascinating plot relates the story of Garibaldi and Italy’s liberation through the tale of an ordinary Sicilian villager, as his region stirs in revolt from a tyrannical Bourbon occupation.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., March 19, 4 p.m.

Allonsanfan
Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
(Italy, 1974, 111 min.)
In the post-Napoleonic period, a nobleman and ex-revolutionary decides to return to the comforts of his former family life but his comrades engage him again in a new insurrection.
National Gallery of Art
Sat., March 12, 2:30 p.m.

The House by the Medlar Tree
(Malavoglia)
Directed by Pasquale Scimeca
(Italy, 2010, 94 min.)
This story of a Sicilian fisherman and his family is set against the cruel vagaries of the ocean from which they eke out a living, but which is also the source of continual tragedies and challenges. (EFF)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Thu., March 17, 7 p.m.

The Leopard
(Il Gattopardo)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
(Italy/France, 1963, 186 min.)
The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.
AFI Silver Theatre
March 19 to 24
National Gallery of Art
Sun., March 13, 4:30 p.m.
 

Japanese

Kuroneko
Directed by Kaneto Shindô
(Japan, 1968, 99 min.)
In war-torn medieval Japan, a demon is ripping out the throats of samurai in the grove beyond, so the governor sends a fearless war hero to confront the spirit, but what he finds are two beautiful women (who look just like his lost mother and wife.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., March 11

School Days with a Pig
(Buta ga ita kyôshitsu)
Directed by Tetsu Maeda
(Japan, 2008, 106 min.)
A new elementary school teacher who wants his students to learn “the real connection between life and food” has a proposal for his sixth-grade class: They will adopt a piglet and care for it over the course of a year, but at the end of the year, the pig will be eaten. (EFF)
Goethe-Institut
Thu., March 24, 6:30 p.m.
 

Korean

I Saw the Devil
(Akmareul boatda)
Directed by Kim Jee-woon
(South Korea, 2010, 141 min.)
A dangerous psychopath kills the pregnant fiancée of an elite special agent, who, obsessed with revenge, decides to track down the murderer, even if doing so means becoming a monster himself.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Opens Fri., March 18

Mandarin

Disorder
Directed by Huang Weikai
(China, 2009, 58 min.)
This one-of-a-kind news documentary captures the anarchy, violence, and seething anxiety animating China’s major cities today as urbanization advances at a breakneck pace. (EFF)
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., March 25, 7 p.m.

Empire of Silver
(Baiyin diguo)
Directed by Christina Yao
(China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, 2009, 112 min.)
In this sweeping epic set in 1899 China, a hedonistic young man reluctantly takes on the role of heir to a banking empire, where he must work for his unscrupulous father while pining for his beautiful young stepmother.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., March 11, 7 p.m.

Ghost Town
Directed by Zhao Dayong
(China, 2009, 169 min.)
A remote village in a rugged corner of Yunnan Province in China is haunted by traces of its cultural past as its residents, left behind by the country’s boom, piece together their existence. (Mandarin, Nu and Lisu; EFF)
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., March 27, 2 p.m.

Portuguese

Black Orpheus
(Orfeu Negro)
Directed by Marcel Camus
(Brazil/France/Italy, 1959, 100 min.)
Marcel Camus retells the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice amid the riotous color and sounds of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.
AFI Silver Theatre
March 4 to 9

Elite Squad 2
(Tropa de Elite 2)
Directed by José Padilha
(Brazil, 2010, 116 min.)
Nascimento, now a decade older, rises the ranks to become commander-in-chief of Rio de Janeiro’s BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion), but he soon comes to the sobering realization he’s now aiding his true enemies: corrupt cops and dirty politicians with major electoral interests. (EFF)
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
Wed., March 16, 7 p.m.

Sanskrit

Kutiyattam
Directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan
(India, 2001, 180 min.)
Renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan was granted special access to a famous 16th-century Kutiyattam Sanskrit theater space to capture the essence of this fascinating form of cultural expression. (Sanskrit and Malayalam)
Freer Gallery of Art
Sat., March 19, 1 p.m.

Silent

Blackmail
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(U.K., 1929, 85 min.)
The enormous success of the sound version of Hitchcock’s “Blackmail” and the passing of the silent film era relegated the silent version to undeserved obscurity, and it was only recently rediscovered and restored.
AFI Silver Theatre
Sun., March 27, 3 p.m. 

Spanish

Cochengo Miranda
Directed by Jorge Preloran
(Argentina, 1974/2003, 54 min.)
The reveries, pains and pleasures of a family in the Western Pampas of Argentina are revealed during a time of great change. (EFF)
Embassy of Argentina
Tue., March 22, 6:30 p.m.

Cry of the Andes
Directed by Carmen Henrãquez and Denis Paquette
(Canada, 2010, 90 min.)
In the heart of the Andes Mountains, Pascua Lama is poised to become the world’s largest open pit mine, but for the indigenous people and farmers living in the valley below, it threatens their only source of water in one of the driest places on earth. (Spanish and English; EFF)
GALA Hispanic Theatre
Sat., March 19, 6 p.m.

The Dolphin: Story of a Dreamer
(El delfín: La historia de un soñador)
Directed by Eduardo Schuldt
(Germany/Peru/Italy, 2009, 95 min.)
In this animated tale, Daniel Alexander Dolphin dreams of something more, beyond his familiar lagoon, so he tries to discover the purpose of his life by surfing the perfect wave, with help from Carl the Cuttlefish. (EFF)
GALA Hispanic Theatre
Sat., March 19, 4 p.m.

Even the Rain
(También la lluvia)
Directed by Icíar Bollaín
(Spain/France/Mexico, 2010, 103 min.)
“Even the Rain” sets up an intriguing dialogue about Spanish imperialism through incidents taking place some 500 years apart, while examining the personal belief systems of the members of a film crew who arrive in Bolivia to make a revisionist film about the conquest of Latin America.
Landmark’s E Street Cinema

El Muro
Directed by Greg Rainoff
(U.S./Mexico, 2010, 85 min.)
Migrants, deportees, minutemen, coyotes, environmentalists, writers and academics consider the human and environmental consequences of the newly constructed international border fence between San Diego and Tijuana. (Spanish and English; EFF)
Mexican Cultural Institute
Fri., March 18, 6:30 p.m.

Lira: An Enclave of Life on the Coast of Death
(Lira: Reserva de Vida na Costa da Morte)
Directed by Marcos Gallego Fernandez
(Spain, 2010, 57 min.)
For the fishing community of LIRA, located on Spain’s “Costa da Morte,” the spill from the Prestige oil tanker has spawned innovative approaches to the problems of overfishing and overall health of the sea. (EFF)
GALA Hispanic Theatre
Wed., March 16, 6:30 p.m.

Traces and Memory of Jorge Preloran
(Huellas y memoria de Jorge Preloran)
Directed by Fermin Alvarez Rivera and Emiliano Penelas
(Argentina, 2009, 79 min.)
Jorge Preloran documented Argentina on film as no one has done before him or since, shooting more than 60 ethno-biographic documentaries. This illuminating documentary is a wise combination of accuracy and sentiment, showing the director as a solitary man who turned to documentary as a way to channel his social communication skills. (EFF)
Embassy of Argentina
Thu., March 17, 6:30 p.m.

Tamil

I Am God
(Naan Kadavul)
Directed by Bala
(India, 2009, 150 min.)
A 14-year-old boy abandoned by his father grows up amidst the madmen and mendicants in the holy city of Varanasi, where he falls in with a tantric sect and becomes an aghori, a ganja-devouring god in the flesh able to mete out divine justice.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., March 4, 7 p.m.

Paruthiveeran
Directed by Ameer Sultan
(India, 2007, 150 min.)
An arid village on the outskirts of Madurai is the setting for this tortured love story between a brutal social misfit and the love-struck, masochistic woman determined to make him husband material.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., March 20, 2 p.m.

Pudhupettai
Directed by Selvaraghavan
(India, 2006, 168 min.)
Operatic in plot and expressionistic in visualization, Selvaraghavan’s box-office smash follows the unlikely rise of a petty criminal who becomes a powerful gang lord in the slums of Chennai.
Freer Gallery of Art
Sun., March 6, 2 p.m.

Subramaniampuram
Directed by G. Sasikumar
(India, 2008, 160 min.)
This low-budget film was hailed for its careful reconstruction of the 1980s, offering an unvarnished look at the friendship of five unemployed men squandering their days away on liquor and dodging the law in Madurai.
Freer Gallery of Art
Fri., March 18, 7 p.m.

Thai

Tropical Malady
(Sud Pralad)
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
(Thailand/France/Germany/Italy, 2004, 118 min.)
This provocative diptych follows the burgeoning romance between farm boy Tong and soldier Keng, who also pursues a tiger at night in the jungle. (EFF)
AFI Silver Theatre
Sat., March 26, 7:30 p.m