FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR 2012 MOUNTAINFILM

New York, NY (September 25, 2012) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the lineup for the 2012 Mountainfilm series, which runs from October 19-21. For the third year, Mountainfilm comes to New York, bringing with it the energy of the outdoors and the power of movies that matter, plus live appearances, conversations and special performances. The series kicks off with award-winning CHASING ICE, where photographer James Balog documents the disappearance of glaciers in extraordinary time-lapse images, while battling faulty equipment, a bad knee and existential questions about our own uncertain future. Tickets are now on sale!

David Holbrooke, Festival Director of Mountainfilm in Telluride said, “It's a great honor for us to partner with the Film Society Lincoln Center. Our Mountainfilm World Tour goes all over the world to 130 locations such as Brazil, Norway, and China but no venue is as prestigious as Lincoln Center and we are excited to present a weekend of stellar programming at their outstanding theater.”

Started in 1979 by rock climbers who wanted to watch documentaries about their chosen sport, Mountainfilm in Telluride has evolved into a forum for documentaries of all stripes: dazzling adventure films, compelling environmental films, and a wide range of documentaries that examine current cultural as well as political issues as well as individuals who inspire us with their work and their lives.

“We're thrilled to welcome Mountainfilm back to the Film Society,” said Associate Director of Programming, Special Programs and Industry, Marian Masone. “The documentaries on offer cover a wide variety of themes, but central to all are what people have done, or can do to make a difference in their lives and in the lives of others.”

This year’s lineup includes a shorts program paired with a live talk from Jon Turk, who will discuss his adventures when he joined pro-kayaker Erik Boomer for the first kayak circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island; LIVING DOWNSTREAM, a powerful film about Sandra Steingraber, a cancer survivor who asks the question: How much proof is necessary to treat industrial contamination of air, soil and streams as human rights issues? Steingraber will be in attendance. 

Mountainfilm will also include TRUE DELTA, a screening and live musical performance from the band! The film focuses on the Mississippi blues as directors Lee Quinby and Daniel Cowen interview historians who explain the culture that has created this essential American music, and showcase musicians who attest to the importance of the blues remaining culturally relevant.

Create your own double feature package & save! Two films: $15 Members/Students/Seniors, $20 General Public.  Single tickets: $8 Members/$9 Students & Seniors/$13 General Public. Go to Filmlinc.com to purchase.

FILMS, SCHEDULE & DESCRIPTIONS

OPENING NIGHT!
CHASING ICE
Jeff Orlowski, 2012, USA; 74m
In 2005, photographer James Balog set out on an audacious quest: to document the disappearance of glaciers by setting up time-lapse cameras around the world. With temperatures on the rise, his plan worked well as the cameras of his Extreme Ice Survey captured some of the biggest calving incidents ever. But the award-winning Chasing Ice isn’t just about the glaciers; it also shows an artist at work. Balog wrestles with a bad knee, faulty equipment and the existential question of how the collapse of glaciers is a harbinger of our own uncertain future.
*FRI. OCT 19, 7:00PM

BIG IN BOLLYWOOD
Bill Bowles & Kenny Meehan, 2011, USA; 69m
Omi Vaidya was a struggling actor in Los Angeles who was getting by mostly on commercials. Raised in Palm Springs, he barely spoke Hindi and had little connection to India, the homeland of his parents. So when he was asked to audition for a role in a Bollywood film, Vaidya had low expectations. He ended up getting a small, but key, part in the film–a comedy called Three Idiots–and the producers invited him to the premiere in India. A bunch of his college friends decided that this would be a good story for a documentary and followed him. Boy, were they right! Three Idiots became a massive hit, and our young hero goes from being a total unknown to a household name in India, which changes his life forever.
*SAT. OCT 20, 9:00PM

CRITICAL MASS
Mike Freedman, 2012, UK; 100m
It’s not easy to address the issue of human overpopulation, so filmmaker Mike Freedman did something clever: He tells the story with mice. He uses the cautionary tale from a science experiment by research psychologist John B. Calhoun to show what happens when rodents are crowded together: It’s not a pretty sight. Mice stop weaning their young; they often attack their progeny and cease normal behaviors. The conclusions of the experiment–and film–amplify the warnings of many demographic experts.
*SAT. OCT 20, 6:15PM

SPECIAL LIVE EVENT!
JON TURK PRESENTATION
At the age of 65, explorer and author Jon Turk joined 26 year-old pro-kayaker Erik Boomer for the first kayak circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island. The 1,500 mile journey earned the pair a nomination for National Geographic Adventurers of the Year, but nearly killed Turk, who will talk about his near-demise and the journey's other (mis)adventures.
Followed by
SHORTS PROGRAM
MOONWALK
Mikey Schaefer, 2012, USA; 4m
Dean Potter is nothing if not creative. In this short piece, he highlines across a desert landscape with a massive full moon as his backdrop.
THE FREEDOM CHAIR
Mike Douglas, 2011, Canada; 15m
Josh Dueck was a passionate free-skier who found himself coaching world-class athletes, such as TJ Schiller and Justin Dorey, at a young age. But one day, he misjudged his speed as he approached a jump, and what could have been a harmless mistake, brought inextricable, life-altering consequences. When he crashed, his spinal cord was severed, leaving him paralyzed. Instead of giving up on skiing, however, Dueck refocused his passion into sit-skiing, and the experience allowed him to jump-start a new career and find a new way to do what he loves the best: ski.
NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT
Shasta Grenier & Sabrina Lee, 2012, USA; 40m
There are few things more poignant than to see strong, brave men and women–warriors, all–reduced by the ravages of combat to brokenness: brokenness not just of the body, but also of the soul. Yet there is a tremendous redemptive power in witnessing those same tragically weakened and humbled men overcoming such harsh adversity to regain their honor, confidence and self-esteem. When such a story plays out against the timeless backdrop of Montana riverscapes and the meditative focus of flyfishing, it becomes all the more moving. In person: Col. Eric Hastings, who started Warriors and Quiet Waters, will talk about his life-changing organization after the film.
*SUN. OCT 21, 7:00PM

LIVING DOWNSTREAM
Chanda Chevannes, 2011, USA; 55 min
Like her hero, the pioneering environmental author Rachel Carson (Silent Spring), Sandra Steingraber is a cancer survivor. Diagnosed at age 20, she successfully battled the disease for 30 years. During that time, she’s used her knowledge and training as a biologist to bridge the gap between what scientists and the medical community regard as the causes of cancer. Steingraber grew up surrounded by toxic chemical discharge from industrial agriculture and is certain that her childhood environment and her health as an adult are intimately connected. She asks one of the essential questions of our age: How much proof is necessary to treat industrial contamination of air, soil and streams as human rights issues? This is a powerful and compelling film about a woman whose brilliance is surpassed only by her honesty and grit.
*SAT. OCT. 20, 2:00PM; Followed by a Q&A with Sandra Steingraber

STUFF EVERYWHERE
Judith de Leeuw, 2011, Netherlands; 54 min
For many of us, our possessions rule our lives more than we would like to admit. This is definitely the case for Judith de Leeuw, who lives a normal life with her boyfriend and young son in a small apartment in the Netherlands. Stuff Everywhere documents her personal quest to discover the connection between people and their things. Slightly obsessed with her own possibly unhealthy relationship to her stuff, she decides to count it–all of it. But counting this stuff isn’t as simple as it might sound, and de Leeuw finds herself spiraling deeper and deeper into the obsession. Their apartment is too small for the task, so she rents a warehouse and begins categorizing and chronicling. With humor, quirkiness and style, de Leeuw manages to tackle some big questions about, well, all sorts of stuff.
Screening with
MAN WHO LIVED ON HIS BIKE
Guillaime Blanchet, 2012, Canada; 5m
What can you do on a bicycle? For Guillaume Blanchet, the question is what can’t you do? In this two-minute homage to bikes and the bike obsessed, Blanchet eats, sleeps, showers, shaves, works, cooks and even dates—all from atop his man-powered machine.
Screening with
LIVING TINY
Paul Donatelli, Paul Meyers, 2011, USA; 6m
“People like having lots of stuff, Americans in particular,” says one of the characters in the charming documentary Living Tiny. In a country obsessed with growth and progress, there is a small, but growing, population of people who are rejecting the axiom that “bigger is better” and are downsizing. Their tiny abodes, no larger than 200 square feet, are not caging them, but liberating them from a culture of consumption. “Ultimately you can only occupy 12 square feet of space at a time. Everything else is just a place to keep your stuff.”
*SUN. OCT 21, 2:00PM

TERRA BLIGHT
Isaac Brown, 2012, USA; 55m
How about these numbers: Americans spent $165 billion on consumer electronics in 2010, and we bought more than 260,000 computers a day. E-waste is the fastest-growing stream of waste in the world (there are approximately 40 million metric tons of it each year worldwide) and is the subject of this fast-paced film by Isaac Brown and Eric Flagg. The filmmakers have turned statistics into a human story of many people: gamers who need the newest high-definition screen; an earnest and effective American recycler; and children in Ghana who break apart the toxic remains of our computers, cell phones and televisions. The U.S. is the only industrialized country that doesn’t prohibit the export of its e-waste, so these children are exposed to the lead, cadmium and mercury from computers once used by the Connecticut Department of Health and the EPA.
Screening prior:
ISLAND
Liberty Smith & Sophie Windsor Clive, 2011, UK; 8m
The scene is set with two young women—Sophie Windsor Clive and Liberty Smith—on a casual canoe trip on the River Shannon in Ireland. Under heavy skies, they make their way to a bird-infested island where they witness a gathering of starlings—a “murmuration”—that is so phenomenal and surreal that it's almost poetry in motion. If this story sounds familiar, it might be because their simple, two-minute film—called Murmuration—went viral last year. Island is a longer, yet equally compelling, version of an unforgettable paddling adventure.
Screening with
ECO NINJA
Jonathan Browning, 2010, USA; 6m
From the maker of the award-winning short film The Job (Mountainfilm 2007) comes this satirical brief comedy about a corporation that enforces a go-green policy in its offices by hiring an Eco Ninja who takes his duties all too seriously. As usual, Jonathan Browning and Screaming Frog Productions think outside the box — and then recycle the box.
Screening with
MEET MR. TOILET
Jessica Yu, 2012, USA; 3m
For those without access to a simple toilet, poop can be poison. But it’s not just a problem for the poor. Mr. Toilet — a nickname for the businessman turned sanitation superhero, Jack Sim, whose mission is to make sure everyone on the planet has access to clean toilets — says “flies don’t know the difference between a rich man and a poor man, so the rich man is probably eating the shit of the poor man…. Think about it.”
*SAT. OCT 20, 4:15PM

LIVE MUSCIAL PERFORMANCE BY TRUE DELTA!
TRUE DELTA
Lee Quinby & Daniel Cowen, 2012, USA; 36m
“The Blues will never go away, but we are at the threshold of the last of the generations of the guys who were there–who were actually there when the art form was created,” says a character in True Delta. That’s the essence of this film: Knowledge and experience from the oldsters need to be passed to a younger generation to prevent the blues from fading away. Focusing on the Mississippi blues, directors Lee Quinby and Daniel Cowen interview historians who explain the culture that has created this essential American music, and showcase musicians who attest to the importance of the blues remaining culturally relevant.
SCREENING WITH:
SMOKE SONGS
Briar March, 2011, USA; 20m
Punk rock and human rights don’t necessarily share a common cause, but in the case of the band Blackfire, their music and their message are two integral parts of a solid and strong identity. Born into the Navajo Nation in an area on Black Mesa that is still in political dispute, band members (and siblings) Jeneda, Clayson and Klee Benally find it impossible to separate their passion for music from their sociopolitical messages. Mixing pure punk rock on electric equipment with Native American words, rhythm and sometimes dance, their music carries messages about government oppression, relocation of indigenous people, genocide and other rights issues that are often suppressed in this country’s dominant media culture–and their outreach doesn’t stop on the stage.
*FRI. OCT. 19, 9:30PM

VOYAGE TO THE END OF WINTER/VOYAGE AU BOUT DE L’HIVER
Anne & Erik Lapied, 2010, France; 77m
French wildlife cinematographers Anne and Erik Lapied spent a winter in the heart of the Gran Paradiso National Park, high in the Italian Alps, in the hopes of photographing elusive animals–chamois, ibexes, hares, eagles, foxes, lammergeiers and others. This disarming story about their unusual, humbling winter alone in the mountains is pure and poetic, but the poetry becomes dangerous and the mountains turn sinister when a huge snowstorm dumps meters on their small hamlet. As avalanches crash down around them, they continue to capture images of nature and show how the animals cope–or perish–during a harsh winter.
*SUN. OCT 21, 4:15PM

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.
The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.

For Media specific inquiries, please contact:
John Wildman, (212) 875-5419
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David Ninh, (212) 875-5423
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