I didn’t even know Strasbourg HAD a 10-day  international film festival. Of course, this is only their second year but it’s definitely worth a mention. (Thanks, Sophie)

The Strasbourg International Film Festival is an alternative, cutting-edge discovery film festival showcasing independent film from around the world mainly focusing on the works of new and emerging filmmakers, held annually. Presenting 50 feature films and over 150 short films, the Strasbourg International Film Festival works to empower and assist independent filmmakers while bringing audiences a uniquely rich and cultural filmic experience they might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience and embrace.

Here’s the press release for the event:

Strasbourg, France – The Strasbourg International Film Festival presents feature films selected to screen in the following categories – Drama, Post Modern Drama, Culturally-Inclined Drama, Dramedy, Romantic Comedy, Psychological Thriller, SciFi-Fantasy-Horror, Experimental, Animation and Documentary . The 2009 Strasbourg International FIlm Festival runs August 28 through Sept 6 in Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany.

For the 2009 Strasbourg International FIlm Festival 50 feature-length films were selected including 11 World Premieres, 13 International Premieres, 11 European Premieres, 3 Mainland European Premieres, 8 French Premieres, and 3 Strasbourg Premieres representing 37 countries with 31 first-time filmmakers.

The films screening in DRAMA are:

Baghdad, Texas / USA (Director: David H. Hickey) 90 mins. – 2009 – While a Middle Eastern dictator is fleeing his occupied country his plane crashes on the Mexican Border. He is inadvertently carried into Texas by illegal immigrants. Struck by a truck driven by three cowboys, he is taken back to their exotic game ranch where they slowly discover his identity. International premiere

Bathory / Austria/Slovakia, Czech Republic, UK, Hungary, USA (Director: Juraj Jakubisko) 138 mins. – 2008 – Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to mens aspirations for power and wealth. French Premiere

Bergfest (Without You I’m Nothing) / Germany (Directed by Florian Eichinger, 1st Feature) 89 mins. – 2008 – A weekend in the Bavarian Alps. 25-year-old HANNES meets his father after 8 years of separation in a little mountain hut. By the influence of their very different girl friends ANN and LAVINIA, the stage-director-father and his actor-son cautiously try to make a new start. A bold venture, leading all of them to an abyss of unforeseen cruelty.  French Premiere

Broken Hill / Australia/USA (Directed by Dagen Merrill. Starring Timothy Hutton) 105 mins. – 2009 – Set against the backdrop of a drought-ridden, rural sheep-ranching community in the heart of Australia’s desolate Outback, BROKEN HILL is the story of an aspiring high school music composer, Tommy McAlpine (18), who struggles against his father’s expectations, cultural stereotypes, and the lack of musicians in his small town. French Premiere

God’s Ear / USA (Directed by Michael Worth) 110 mins. – 2008 – Noah Connelly is a boxer with a tireless opponent: Autism. When he meets a fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants dancer named Alexia, both find themselves becoming atracted to each other and must face a bridge between them that neither are sure they are prepared to cross. European Premiere

Forecast / Bulgaria (Directed by Sophia Zornitsa) 102 mins. – 2008 – Margarita leaves the famous reporter Marco Matanich and joins her brother going for a windsurfing vacation with his friends from different Balkan countries on a Turkish island. Marco arrives on the island “only” for the board Margarita stole from him.  French Premiere

Madre Mia / France (Directed by Stefan Libiot) 71 mins. – 2009 – Conversations with mother. (Conversations avec la mère) Strasbourg Premiere
Mita Meista Tuli (What Became of Us) / Finland, Russia/Finland (Directed by Miika Ullakko) 123 mins. – 2009 – Haunted by their childhood pasts friends are faced with their demons and made to tell the tale. European Premiere

Films selected for POST MODERN DRAMA are:

3 Saisons (3 Seasons) / Canada (Directed by Jim Donovan) 100 mins – 2008 – Life finds a way. (La vie trouve un moyen.) Mainland European Premiere

Aspettando Il Sole/ Italy (Directed by Ago Panini, 1st Feature) 95 mins. – 2008 – The place is Italy, anywhere at the beginning of the Eighties. Three bad boys stumble across a remote hotel, looking for something to amuse them through the long hours until dawn, they decide to take the hotel’s night porter hostage. The Bellevue Hotel is full of guests who breathe and sob behind doors. They act out of love and despair, in whispers and screams. Only when these stories start to intertwine do the walls dissolve revealing the visible thread that links their destinies. Strasbourg Premiere

Bureaucracy / USA (Directed by Mark Perreault, 1st Feature) 87 mins. – 2009 – A loyal employee overburdened by a corrupt boss carefully plots a murder to save himself and his blind sister from economic hardship.

La Rina/The Pit / Brazil (Directed by Marcelo Galvão) 85 mins. – 2008 – Instead of showing typical poverty in Brazil, La Riña unveils the opposite by unmasking a sick and cruel elite. Based on true facts, La Riña highlights the polemic of bare knuckle fights in a playboy party where drugs and drinks are served on silver trays.  European Premiere

Love Me Still / UK (Directed by Danny Hiller, 1st Feature) 96 mins. – 2007 – ‘Love Me Still’ is an urban street movie with elements of the classical gangster Brit flick combined with the melodrama of unrelenting love.  Mainland European Premiere

MURO “Nalet Olsun Icimdeki Insan Sevgisine” / Turkey (Directed by Sasmaz Zubeyr, 1st Feature) 97 mins. – 2008 – Muro and Çeto who were released from prison recently, come back to homeland to start their revolution from their village. Their aim is to get married and to be an honorable reformist. However there is an unexpected surprise waiting for them in the village. Muro and Çeto were married off two Russian women by the headman of the village when they were at prison. Muro and Çeto have to carry out their revolution dream by being divorced from them. Therefore they return to İstanbul… European Premiere

Uneasy / USA (Directed by Kenneth Compton, 1st Feature) 80 mins. – 2009 – Michael, a disconnected youth, is involved in the death of an old Russian woman. Easily escaping his pursuers, he cannot run from his conscience, forcing him to make the ultimate sacrifice. World Premiere

Un peu plus d’éternité / France (Directed by Niav Conty, 1st Feature) 75 mins. – 2008 – Anne exists. She doesn’t know why, or how long it will last. She is alone. In her routine life, she is confronted by the absurdity of human behavior, the strange nature of communication, and the tragic-comedy of jumbled encounters. World Premiere

Films screening in CULTURALLY-INCLINED DRAMA are:

Forward/Backward / USA (Directed by Elizabeth Spear/Kendall Lynch, 2nd/1st Feature respectively) 96 mins. – 2009 – Clayton lost his wallet, and he hasn’t paid the water bill. Which wouldn’t be so bad, except he also lost his job sweeping up at the theater. Small, East Texas towns like Reklaw don’t have too many jobs for guys with a brain injury, slight paralysis and an occasional lack of good judgment. And no, in case you were wondering, he ain’t retarded.  International Premiere

Jose Ignacio / Uruguay (Directed by Ricardo Preve) 83 mins. – 2009 – A summer love story that happens in a little village of the coast of Uruguay between a writer and a woman who teaches surf.  International Premiere

Shiro’s Head / Guam (Directed by Kel Muna/Don Muna, 1st Feature) 80 mins. – 2008 – A modern part of a forgotten history, ‘Shiro’s Head’ takes us to the Pacific island of Guam, USA where outcast Vince Flores (Don Muna) struggles to come to terms with his family’s history of secrets and a dark past of his own. Shunned from his family for the death of his father, his attempt to reconcile causes his family’s past to catch up to him for the last time.  European Premiere

El regalo de la Pachamama / Bolivia (Directed by Toshifumi Matsushita, 1st Feature) 104 mins. – 2008 – A spiritual docudrama set in Bolivia, where a 13-year-old boy lives a traditional life with his family near Uyuni, a salt lake.  European Premiere

Village Tales / Poland (Directed by Wlodzimierz Krygier, 1st Feature) 62 mins. – 2008 – A culturally-inclined rural docudrama about life in Poland. (Un docudrame culturelle au sujet de la mode de vie en Pologne.) World Premiere

Films screening in DRAMEDY are:

Boppin’ At The Glue Factory / USA (Directed by Jeff Orgill, 1st Feature) 81 mins. – 2009 – A junkie nurse stumbles into his dream job – running the graveyard shift at a convalescent home.  Strasbourg Premiere

Der Mond und Andere Liebhaber (The Moon and Other Lovers) / Germany (Directed by Bernd Böhlich) 101 mins. – 2008 – The film narrates the story of Hanna, a woman who will not take life’s set backs and knock-downs sitting down. Instead, she takes them in her stride, picks herself up and marches onward. This is a woman who continually draws new courage from her inexhaustible will to live. Whatever losses and uncertainties come her way, she remains true to herself. French Premiere

Herbeast Comes to Life / USA (Directed by Timothy Williams, 1st Feature) 90 mins. – 2009 – An over-the-top comedy about a young man who goes on a journey to find his place in the world.  World Premiere

Na Lepom Plavom Dunavu (The Beautiful Blue Danube) / Austria, Hungary, Serbia/Montenegro / Serbia/Montenegro (Directed by Darko Bajic) 107 mins. – 2008 – The ship “Kriemhild” is a floating sin city where people from East and West share the same bourgeois dreams and consumer’s utopia. In the post heroic, post aesthetic phase- only a dream has survived: the need for love. French Premiere

Films screening in ROMANTIC COMEDY are:

Love Hurts / USA (Directed by Barra Grant) 95 mins. – 2008 – Ben (Richard E. Grant) A successful doctor but an obtuse husband, is finally left by his wife (Carrie Anne Moss). Befuddled by life and romance and obsessed with winning her back, Ben is tutored by his extremely popular 17 year-old son. To his amazement Ben becomes the most desirable single man in town. World Premiere

Pussyfoot / USA/USA, Serbia/Montenegro (Directed by Dusan Sekulovic, 1st Feature) 97 mins. – 2008 – Irwin Pelkalvski, a bristly faced resident alien, and friends face their second coming of age in New York City. For Irwin, there are ‘women’ and then there are ‘girls’: women want to get married and girls just want to have fun. For the single Anny there are three types of men: married, gay and idiots. Polish polka bars, confusing self help books and a mythical hooker that never sleeps with her clients, confound their American journey. International Premiere

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead / USA (Directed by Jordan Galland) 83 mins. – 2008 – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead is a comedy about the connection between Shakespeare, the Holy Grail and some sexy vampires. Our hero, an unemployed theater director, is unwittingly dragged into an ancient conspiracy, and his friend’s warning–’Don’t let your ex-girlfriend suck the life out of you’ — takes on a new meaning. International Premiere

Films screening in PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER are:

31 North 62 East / Jordan, UK/UK (Directed by Tristan Loraine, 1st Feature) 100 mins. – 2009 – A female Captain in the SAS who survives an attack on her unit in Afghanistan, later discovers that her unit was sacrificed for political reasons. World Premiere

Eugene / USA (Directed by Jake Barsha, 1st Feature) 85 mins. – 2008 – A psychological thriller about a lonely bachelor who befriends a young hustler and his girlfriend, with disastrous results for all involved. International Premiere

Four of a Kind / Australia (Directed by Fiona Cochrane, 1st Feature) 115 mins. – 2008 – Four different women, each with a well-hidden secret they are coaxed, tricked or forced into revealing… sometimes it’s better to omit the truth. European Premiere

Print / USA (Directed by Ashley C. Beyer, 1st Feature) 81 mins. – 2008 – Print is a taut psychological thriller about Chase, a young man who sets out to confront the best-selling author he is convinced stole his life story. The only problem is, the author may be a fabrication from the mind of a duplicitous photographer. International Premiere

Films screening in SCI-FI – FANTASY – HORROR are:

The Antidote / USA (Directed by Randy Cole) 63 mins. – 2008 – A voyeuristic teenager named Jimmy witnesses a scientist’s transformation into a nightmarish creature. When Jimmy investigates, the scientist turned creature pleads with him to help restore him to his former human self. What ensues is a dark bargaining between teenager and monster over homework, lust, love, and eventually death.  International Premiere

Clear Lake, WI / USA (Directed by Brian Ide, 1st Feature. Starring Michael Madsen) 87 mins. – 2008 – A group of six people return to their former home town (now a ghost town) to revisit the evil that drove them away 15 years ago. International Premiere

Finale / USA (Directed by John Elfers, 1st Feature) 93 mins. – 2008 – When Helen discovers her son was sacrificed by a demonic cult, no one believes her. Alone, she must destroy the cult to save her family.  European Premiere

The Fourth Pillar / Australia (Directed by Leo Flander, 1st Feature) 87 mins. – 2009 – Rheya Fitzgerald arrives at NSG-E42, she soon finds out the school is run like a prison. The students plight becomes worse when a failed rebellion causes students to begin to disappear. World Premiere

Locked Out / Japan (Directed by Yasunobu Takahashi, 1st Feature) 81 mins. – 2008 – Hiroshi is lost, on the road, driving aimlessly by himself, radio blaring, when he slowly realizes he is nowhere. He doesn’t know exactly where he is, and reflects that he doesn’t even have a specific destination. The feeling of loss lingers around him. On the way, he encounters a projection of a more violent HIMSELF, seething with hatred and viciousness.  Strasbourg Premiere

Treis Stigmes (Three Moments) / Greece (Directed by Petros Sevastikoglou) 80 mins. – 2008 – Love confronting three ages, three moments.  International Premiere

Films screening in EXPERIMENTAL are:

The Day / Mexico (Directed by Tao René Mijares, 1st Feature) 106 mins. – 2008 – One day in the life of a woman. (Un jour dans la vie d’une femme.) World Premiere
For the End of Time / Slovenia (Directed by Ema Kugler, 2nd Feature. Narration by Lydia Lunch) 127 mins. – 2009 – A film about the mind… about the body, and the inability to merge these two entities. World Premiere

Jane’s Paradise / Netherlands (Directed by Dee Wills, 1st Feature) 80 mins. – 2008 – Fragments of a life. Fragments of a mind. The life and mind of Jane Doe, an every-girl dealing with the ‘gift’ of imagination. Unraveling the darker side of her present, she struggles to break free from her past. To become what this Jane dreams of becoming…a filmmaker.  World Premiere

The Why / USA (Directed by Anthony Pedone, 1st Feature) 97 mins. – 2009 – In the absence of love… In the absence of hate… In the absence of reason… ( World Premiere

Film screenings in DOCUMENTARY are:

Betrayal: The Life and Art of Rudolf Bauer / Germany, U S A /USA (Directed by Ken Swartz, 1st Feature) 72 mins. – 2008 – From a Gestapo prison to the Guggenheim Museum, the story of twentieth-century abstract artist Rudolf Bauer is one of Shakespearean proportion. Yet Bauer’s name and art have been largely forgotten. This documentary revisits the life and art of this important painter, from his artistic beginnings in Berlin before World War I to his pioneering contributions to abstract art and his patronage by copper magnate Solomon R. Guggenheim. Sixty years later the art of Rudolf Bauer is rediscovered.  International Premiere

Children of Armageddon / Canada, French Polynesia, Japan, Marshall Islands, New Zealand/Canada (Directed by Fabienne Lips-Dumas, 1st Feature) 95 mins. – 2008 – In the face of a potential nuclear renaissance, this passionate and deeply moving account explores the legacy of nuclear arms in Japan, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, New Zealand, and around the world. With the participation of: Noam Chomsky, Hans Blix, Judge C.G. Weeramantry, Arjun Makhijani, and Douglas Roche. European Premiere

Guerrilla Midwife / Indonesia, U S A (Directed by Deja Bernhardt, 1st Feature) 67 mins. – 2008 – Follows Ibu Robin Lim into the trenches of her work. From Bali, where hemorrhage after childbirth is a leading cause of death, into the Tsunami disaster zone in Aceh, where her battle is fought with only one weapon, love. In this culturally mesmerizing, heart-wrenching documentary, you will discover why we must reinvent our protocols for pregnancy and childbirth in order to preserve our Planet’s Humanity. Mainland European Premiere

Nuestros Desaparecidos/Our Disappeared / Argentina, U S A/USA (Directed by Juan Mandelbaum) 99 mins. – 2008 – After learning that Patricia, a long lost girlfriend from Argentina, is among the thousands who “disappeared” during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, director Juan Mandelbaum embarks on a journey to find out what happened to her and others he knew who were kidnapped and never seen again. European Premiere

Pirate for the Sea / Antarctica, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, South Africa, U S A/USA (Directed by Ron Colby) – 101 mins. – 2008 – A biographical film of Captain Paul Watson. The youngest founding member of Greenpeace Canada, he organized early campaigns protesting the killing of seals,whales and dolphins. Greenpeace ejected him for being too much of an activist. Starting his own organization, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, he went on to sink illegal whaling ships, stopped the Canadian seal hunt for ten years, permanently halted sealing in British Isles, killing of dolphins on Iki Island, Japan, etc. This documentary witnesses his latest campaigns & explores the personal and environmental history of this controversial marine environmentalist.  French Premiere

Sweet Crude / Nigeria/USA (Directed by Sandy Cioffi, 1st Feature) 93 mins. – 2009 – Sweet Crude is the story of Nigeria’s Niger Delta – the human and environmental consequences of 50 years of oil extraction, the history of non-violent protest, and the members of a new insurgency who, in the three years since the filmmakers met them as college students, became the young men of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).  Mainland European Premiere

Strasbourg Int’l Film Fest (website)