The Way We Get By
Aron Gaudet, U.S., 2009, 84 min.
Friday, Nov. 20, 4:15 p.m., Frontenac 6
Saturday, Nov. 21, 12:30 p.m., Frontenac 6

A moving and compassionate story about aging, loneliness and mortality, “The Way We Get By” tells the story of three senior citizens who gather daily at Bangor, Maine’s airport to thank American soldiers departing for and returning from Iraq. When the troop greeters – including the filmmaker’s mother, Joan – aren’t at the airport, they wrestle with their own problems: failing health, depression, mounting debt. Winner of the Audience Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and a Special Jury Award at SXSW, “The Way We Get By” “is filled with a rare honesty and intimacy that makes for a rewarding, if largely heartbreaking, film experience,” according to the LA Times. “These everyday heroes, who never pass judgment on our nation’s current war efforts, compellingly bare their souls here, facing their mortality as profoundly as do any of the soldiers they meet on a daily basis. Bring your handkerchiefs.”

We Live in Public
Ondi Timoner, 2008, U.S., 90 min.
Thursday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m., Tivoli 1

A riveting portrait of artist, futurist and visionary Josh Harris, Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize winner for Best Documentary explores the profound effects that the Web is having on our society. Director Timoner (“DIG!”) documented Harris’ tumultuous life for more than a decade to create a cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world takes control of our lives. Often called the “Warhol of the Web,” Harris founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network, and curated the groundbreaking project Quiet, in which more than 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days in an underground bunker in NYC. Harris subsequently lived six months with his girlfriend under 24-hour electronic surveillance – an experience that led to his mental collapse. Calling the film “astounding,” Variety says that “We Live in Public” “burrows into the thin and darkly funny spaces between artistry and vanity, isolation and community, collaboration and exploitation, sanity and madness.”

William Kuntsler: Disturbing the Universe
Emily & Sarah Kuntsler, U.S., 2009, 85 min.
Monday, Nov. 16, 7:15 p.m., Tivoli 3

Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore the life of their father in this admiring but surprisingly multifaceted portrait of the late radical lawyer. In the 1960s and 1970s, William Kunstler fought for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., represented the Chicago 8, and played a major negotiating role when the inmates took over Attica prison and the American Indian Movement took a stand at Wounded Knee. But Kunstler also represented some of the most reviled members of society, including rapists and assassins, complicating his legacy. The film provides fascinating insight into a man that even his own daughters did not always understand. The Hollywood Reporter describes the documentary, which debuted at Sundance, “as expertly put together and never less than compelling. It’s a labor of love that helps restore the reputation of a significant player on the American stage in the last half of the 20th century.”
With co-director Emily Kunstler.

The Wonder of It All
Jeffrey Roth, U.S., 2007, 83 min.
Wednesday, Nov. 18, 5 p.m., Tivoli 1

“The Wonder of It All” focuses on the rarely told human side of the men behind the Apollo missions through thoughtful and candid accounts from seven of the astronauts. Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt reflect on the training, the tragedies, the camaraderie and the effect their space travel has had on their families and the world. “These elder statesmen’s recollections of their brief moments on the moon, as well as of what preceded and followed, make for vivid and emotional storytelling,” says the LA Times. “The talking-head testimonies are matched by wonderful NASA archival photos and footage from the various Apollo excursions.”

Shown with the documentary short “Reaching Tranquility” (Karl Ferron, U.S., 2009, 10 min.), a look back at Apollo 11 on its 40th anniversary using dramatic time-lapse footage of the moon.

Youssou N’Dour:
I Bring What I Love
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Senegal, 2008, 100 min., French, Wolof, English & Arabic
Friday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m., Webster

Far more than a concert film, “I Bring What I Love” immerses the audience in the world of Africa’s most famous musician, Youssou N’Dour, concentrating on a tumultuous period in which he creates his most personal and controversial work. Intending to celebrate Islam through the album “Egypt,” N’Dour is instead labeled as blasphemous for merging the sacred and secular. Although “I Bring What I Love” provides intimate glimpses of N’Dour’s family life in Dakar, Senegal, it also features abundant music, as he travels the world with his elaborate “Egypt” concert tour. The San Francisco Chronicle writes: “In 2007, when Time magazine named Youssou N’Dour one of the world’s 100 most influential people, it had Peter Gabriel profile the African singer, with Gabriel using such descriptions as ‘voice of liquid gold,’ ‘source of inspiration’ and ‘major African leader.’ All these qualities are on display in this mesmerizing documentary.”

Sponsored by Ken and Nancy Kranzberg