7th annual United Nations Association Film Festival comes to Bay Area
Originally written for The Milpitas Post
Local film festivals are a treasure. For a nominal admission fee, you can see virtually unknown gems of film, ranging from the hysterically funny to the heartrendingly poignant to the sharpest of satires. The United Nations Association Film Festival is here again, brought to us by the Stanford Film Society and United Nations Association Midpeninsula Chapter. This year’s theme is The Values of Tolerance, and the 27 films presented between October 10 and October 24 all embody that – sometimes in surprising ways.
“Big Enough,” which also was screened at this year’s Cinequest, is a marvellous documentary about dwarfs. What is it like to live as a dwarf when the world is geared to people two or three times your height? By turns hilarious and touching, this is a must see.
Another eye-opener is “Afghanistan Unveiled,” a documentary made by the first ever team of women video journalists about the way women in Afghanistan live now that the Taliban are gone. None of these trainee filmmakers had ever been outside the city of Kabul before, and what they see in their travels opens their eyes as well as ours.
“Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election” is sure to raise hackles on all sides with its clear and uncompromising account of everything that was wrong about the last election. Rather than focus on one party or the other, it focuses on the breaches of protocol, tradition, and law committed on all fronts. This is not an inflammatory, “Fahrenheit 9/11” style docudrama, this is documentary making as it should be: eye-opening, frightening, and motivating.
Other films showing at the festival include “Dying to Leave,” a moving series about illegal immigration’s perils and effects, and “Crapshoot: The Gamble With Our Wastes,” which is by turns funny and disgusting but overall enlightening.
Many of the films are by local filmmakers, which makes the festival a particularly local event. It’s definitely worth the drive up to Palo Alto to see a handful of eye-openers and supporting local filmmakers is always important.
All screenings are on Stanford University campus in Palo Alto. Check the schedule on the festival website for exact times and locations: www.unaff.org. To see just one film is $8 general / $5 students, or you can get a day pass for $15. Festival passes (for all screenings at the festival) are $60 general / $30 student. Tickets can be purchased at the Stanford Ticket Office (Tressider Union, 650 725-2787), Kepler