When the roar of chainsaws shatters the idyllic setting of Saltspring Island, director Mort Ransen and other residents awake to an unexpected intrusion. A logging operation is underway in a pristine central valley. When islanders rally to oppose the cutting, they discover that land developers have purchased one of the largest expanses of undeveloped wilderness in the Southern Gulf Islands. Concerned about its potentially devastating impact, the residents set out to stop the logging. The film documents a lively and provocative-and often amusing-debate. On one side, the developers-who defend their rights as private landowners. On the other residents-who blockade roads and chain themselves to logging to protect their island, its natural habitat, and their way of life.

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John Sirabella
National Film Board of Canada
350 5th Ave., Suite 4820
NY, NY 10118
(212) 629-8890
fax (212) 629-8502
j.sirabella@nfb.ca

Over 28 million men, women and children live in slavery around the world. To Free the Slaves is a documentary that looks at ordinary men and women in four different countries who are determined to bring an end to the suffering of the weak caused by the economic concerns of the powerful. A Canadian couple redeems slaves caught in a brutal civil war in Sudan ;Save the Children Canada reunites enslaved young people with their families in the Cote d'Ivoire; in Canada, an ex-prostitute helps young people enslaved in prostitution reintegrate into society. And in the brickyards of India, the Pandits free and rehabilitate slaves from bonded labor.

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Sandy Mayzell, Director of Communications
The May Street Group Film, Video, & Animation Ltd.
727 Johnson Street, Suite G
Victoria, BC Canada V8W 1M9
(250) 380-6656
fax (250) 380-6670
maystreet@maystreet.ca

State of Denial takes an unprecedented look at how the citizens of South Africa are living with the AIDS epidemic, given the climate of confusion and neglect perpetuated by the current administration. The film offers a moving account of a society struggling to overcome the harsh realities of illness, global healthcare inequities, and government paralysis. Intimate conversations capture the unbreakable spirit of a people determined to conduct their lives with dignity, grace, and humor. To provide context to these personal stories, Epstein also secures candid, in-depth interviews with some of the country's most notable politicians, health care professionals, and activists-some of whom are her former colleagues.

Also screens Friday, May 30, 4:00 pm.

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Danielle Lazar
Lovett Productions
155 Sixth Avenue
NY, NY 10013-1507
(212) 242-8999
fax (212) 242-7347
Danielle@lovettproductions.com

The Day My God Died is a feature-length documentary that tells the stories of Nepalese girls swept up by the international child sex trade. In their own words, we hear how the day traffickers took each of them from their rural villages and sold them into sexual servitude in the brothels of India. The girls describe it as, "the day my god died." The film documents the fact that these stories are not isolated or haphazard. The industry has formed a pipeline in which every person in the chain profits except for the girls, who pay the price with their lives. This heart-wrenching documentary offers a memorable portrayal of the corruption and evil behind the curtain of India's sex industry, providing us with a brief glimpse into a world seldom seen by outsiders.

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Andrew Levine
Andrew Levine Productions
5100 Cove Canyon Drive, Suite A
Park City, Utah 84098
(435) 655-8319
cell (435) 901-8190
fax (435) 655-8320
Levine@xmission.com

Late at night at a gas station people from all walks of life intersect. A murder is witnessed from three different points of view.All observers are convinced of what they saw yet they are left with completely different judgments. Who saw the truth? What is truth?

Fueling the Fire takes the audience on a journey into the complex nature of human perception.

Also screens Sunday, June 1, 7:00 pm.

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Tanja Mairitsch
Fueling the Fire Productions
American Film Institute
2021 N. Western Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 662-4676
tmairitsch@hotmail.com

A young Iowa mother discovers she is a survivor of one of the most horrific episodes in Guatemala's 36-year-long civil war. Denese Becker (born Dominga Sic Ruiz) was a nine-year-old Maya Indian girl living in a remote highland village in 1982 when soldiers and paramilitary patrollers killed her parents and more than 200 other villagers in what became known as the massacres at Rio Negro-which were later termed "genocide" by a UN-sponsored Truth Commission. The young Dominga escaped to the mountains, running from army troops and at age 11 was adopted by a couple from Iowa. Dominga became Denese, with a new family and a new identity. Years later, housewife and manicurist Denese Joy Becker wonders whether her nightmares and scattered memories of the violence are true.

Discovering Dominga documents Becker's personal odyssey from the cornfields of her adoptive Iowa to the highlands of Guatemala on a journey of self-discovery and political awakening. As she uncovers the truth of her past and the atrocities committed against the Maya people, this shy young woman becomes a witness in a landmark human rights case, which for the first time in Guatemalan history seeks to prosecute former military commanders responsible for the genocide.

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Active Voice
2601 Mariposa St fl 3
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.553.2842
www.activevoice.net

Bus 174 is a riveting and serious film, a careful investigation of the hijacking of a bus in Rio de Janeiro based on an extensive research of stock footage, interviews and official documents. This hijack took place in June 12, 2000 (Valentine's day in Brazil) and was broadcast live for four and a half hours while the entire country stopped to watch the drama on TV. Not only does the film explain the dramatic events that unfolded as the police tried-and failed-to handle the situation, but it also tells the life story of the hijacker, revealing how a typical Rio de Janeiro street kid was transformed into a violent criminal by poverty and hopelessness. Both stories are interwoven in a way that attempts to explain why Brazil is so plagued by violence.

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Jose Padilha
zazen_latso@uol.com.br
Mariana
zazen@zazen.com.br