Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 2008

It is an ordinary day in an old classroom on the Pacific coast. Seven years old, Viola tries to grow up.She feels like a giant, a tiny giant.Lumbering. Isolated.She wonders if there are others like her.She makes her way, and her first steps wobble like new shoots in the spring rain.On too small shoes, teetering. Harlequins somersaulting on the wings of moths,Disturbing the dust in the empty audience seats,Through invisible boxes and costumes and acrobats in knots,On a stumble on slippery moss at the 4 o’clock bus stop.A thousand, thousand people on paths that never touch.Until she meets another giant....

We Are Wizards is an intriguing look at the world of Harry Potter mania and the newly emerging Wizard Rock musical genre. The film delves into complicated and often convoluted issues regarding intellectual property, obsessive fandom, inspiration vs. plagiarism, the collision of art and commerce and life in the age of cultural remixing. It becomes a documentary about finding one’s place in a world that often feels as if everything has been done. We Are Wizards is funny, poignant, moving and strangely triumphant. It’s a charming film that proves -- not only through its endearing look at HP fanatics, but also by its very own existence -- that one ingenious creation can indeed produce equally unique and inspiring art.

One of those old tales once handed down in strict secrecy by a father to his third-born son. It's real title is never used.

The Lovelady Center, a residential facility in Birmingham for women transitioning from prison or recovering from addiction, serves not as a half way house but as a whole way house.

A darkly comic look at the life of an actress and the types of Middle Eastern roles available to her in a post 9/11 culture.Sarita is up for the coveted role of an Iraqi rape victim’s ghost in a new film. No one has seen the script or knows whether it's a serious drama or a cheap horror movie, but everyone seems to think it's perfect for her, including her best friend, her manager, and her ex. Will she be the Woman in Burka?A film by Jonathan Lisecki. Starring Sarita Choudhury, Sam Rockwell, Kerry Washington, Samantha Buck, Debra Eisenstadt, Zeke Farrow, Catherine Kellner, Jonathan Lisecki and Annie Parisse

The rhythmic clink and clatter of household chores. The smack and rattle of the ironing board causes mild-mannered housewife Janet Sancy to catch her iron before it hits the floor. She yells at her son for knocking the ironing board, but realizes she?s holding the hot end. Dropping it, she sees it did not burn her hand but is now destroying the sweater she was ironing!Later, Janet is informed by The Hall of Super Justice that due to her ?heightened adrenaline? she could possibly be a superhero. At first dubious, Janet realizes she could be more than just ?mom.? This news is not greeted with the same enthusiasm by her husband, Mick. Angered by his attitude, Janet sizzles `till POOF - she stands in her uniform: golden tiara, a red bodice with yellow flames, white spandex and a long yellow cape. She is Lady Adrenaline.Out to fight crime only finds Lady Adrenaline doing menial tasks: making thugs pick up trash, stopping kids from spray-painting graffiti. There?s nothing glorious about it and she?s still got to pick up her son from school!Back at home, Janet still has trouble getting Mick to take her seriously. All he sees is the sexy spandex. ?It?s not lingerie, it?s my uniform!?Can Janet make everyone understand ?there?s more to this than the way it looks?? Can Lady Adrenaline achieve real superhero status? Woman?s Work shows her juggling both jobs and fighting for respect from both.

Professional wrestlers in Mexico are like mid-level rock stars, especially in the sports capital of Tijuana. But the spectacle in the ring goes far beyond what WWF sanctions. Gustavo Vazquez’s affectionate, action-packed documentary exposes the surprising variety of nuances in a seemingly macho culture.

More than one-third of Middle Eastern Arabs are under the age of 15, and the majority are male. What do we know of these young men? Rarely, if ever, are their individual voices heard in the West, where our perceptions are largely composed of images of angry mobs, marching en masse, hurling rocks or furiously shouting for blood. YOUNG ARABS offers a quiet encounter with a group of young men who, by virtue of their birth, should one day help lead the Middle East into a rapidly shrinking and uncertain world. Such young men are politically aware, personally ambitious, and expected to lead.By presenting an intimate view of this narrow yet extremely influential segment of Arab society – all but invisible to the mind's eye of America – the film shows not only the diversity of Arab culture and opinion, but also what might be in common, and what is decidedly different, for individuals in the Middle East and the West. The film, as such, contributes to a new and more nuanced view of what the future may hold for this region - and for us all.