2002 Official Sidewalk Selections

A young woman tries to find the right man to be with while dealing with her own life and family problems.

Set in the 1960's, Easy Listening is a masterful period piece with the feel of old happy commercials, Burt makes a living playing trumpet in an elevator music orchestra.

Marnie just graduated from college, drinks likes she's still in school, and is looking for a temporary job but a permanent boyfriend. She loves a guy who doesn't love her (?), ping-pongs between awkward romantic alternatives and even less suitable jobs.

The first crossing of the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia in a land-based vehicle. Third attempt by British adventurer Steve Brooks in his Snowbird 6 vehicle, the ultimate SUV, capable of driving on the frozen ice, crossing the open sea, mounting and leaving huge frozen ice pans all in minus 40 degree weather.

In the end of WW2 a group of four Jewish prisoners trying to escape through the forest The arrive to a small cabin where the find shelter and food, but soon enough a group of nazi soldiers return to the cabin and find the Jews in there A game of psychological battle begins, which changes everyone and everything

A drug dealer after getting arrested, vows to make a fresh start; but instead winds up in a showdown with a malicious legal system threatening to steal his most valued posessions: his freedom and his life.

A comedy named after a poem, that shows (besides a lot of nudity) how various people see art much differently than others.

A young woman who has reinvented herself as a New York City socialite must return home to Alabama to obtain a divorce from her husband after seven years of separation.

Based on the true story of the murder of a girl's parents in Eustis, FL (USA), five teens in a vampire cult on the run are captured by police in New Orleans, LA and tell their tale of how they got there.

In the Latino neighborhood of New York City's Washington Heights, two sons of immigrants one Dominican, one Irish wrestle with ambition and identity, only to discover that sometimes pursuing one's dreams comes at a heavy cost.

Interviews, archival footage, and filmed performances highlight the role of music in the South African struggle against apartheid.

Lightbulbs, fire, barbed wire, mousetraps, staple guns, thumbtacks and glass are weapons of choice in The Backyard. This undercover documentary takes you deep into the controversial arena of backyard wrestling where the limits are constantly being tested...and broken. The Backyard follows several backyard wrestlers in different countries as they pursue their dream to become professional wrestlers.

The hazards of bio-accumulation, pollution, and the makeup of what we commonly hope are benign plastics are tackled in this documentary.

An old architect who believes he's a genius and the world doesn't appreciate his big ideas, asks his daughter to write his biography, and she decides to make a movie about him including all aspects of his life, professional and personal.

The life and works of Oxford, Miss. Fireman-turned-writer Larry Brown are examined in a unique documentary format that incorporates narrative film adaptations of three of his short stories: Samaritans, Wild Thing, and Boy & Dog.

Traveling in a vintage Cadillac, filmmaker Brian Bain, a third generation Jew from New Orleans, sets out on a 4200-mile road trip though the American South. Traveling through Delta flatlands, small towns in Mississippi, suburban subdivisions, Texas ranches, and sprawling Sunbelt metropolises what he uncovers is the unique and diverse history of Southern Jews. Along the way, Bain woos his future wife, herself a southern Jew, and discusses Jewish participation in the Civil Rights Movement with Andrew Young. Shalom Y'all is peopled with interesting characters, including Zelda Millstein from Natchez, a hoop-skirted tour guide at a plantation; Leo Center, a Golden Gloves boxing champion from Savannah who learned how to box by literally fighting his way to get to synagogue; Tupelo's Jack Cristil, Mississippi State's football game announcer for nearly a half-century; an African American-Jewish police chief; a kosher butcher; and musician provocateurs Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. Bain discovers a vibrant regional cultural and hundreds of year of rich history in a film that is happily flavored with both its Jewish and Southern roots.

Adrian goes on a quest with his best friend to meet his father.

In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billie Holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic.

A strange film employing old home movies and newly shot footage in an effort to expose one Hungarian family and their mutiple problems from the 1940s to current. Narrated by James Ellroy, Stan Brakhage, and Dr. Roy Menninger.