Synopsis:

An in-depth study of the atrocities committed on the civilian population of Manila, Philippines, during the battle for the liberation of that city by American forces in 1945.  It contains many unseen film clips, still pictures and interviews with survivors and historians.  Peter Parsons participated in RIFF2006 with his documentary film Secret War in the Pacific.

From the filmmakers who brought you the Academy Award nominated film GENGHIS BLUES, comes the next great adventure... BEYOND THE CALL. Ed, Jim and Walt are not your average weekend warriors. Ordinary, inconspicuous Americans with wives, careers and hobbies, these three friends realize their deepest passion in life through self-financed humanitarian missions to war zones around the globe.  

Passing Poston tells the moving and haunting story of four former internees of the Poston Relocation Center. Each person shadowed by a tragic past, each struggling in their own painful way to reconcile the trauma of their youth, each still searching and yearning during the last chapter of their lives, to find their rightful place in this country. 

Beautiful Me(s) is the true story of a diverse group of underdog students who travel from the elite cloistered environment of Yale University to the rebel state of Cuba. In the streets of Havana and Santiago, they witness extraordinary hip hop, reggae and rumba performances, strike up conversations with Cubans from all walks of life and attend a raucous block party in an integrated neighborhood. The group discovers the close affinity Cuban people feel with Africans and African Americans and their commitment to ending racial injustice. The Cubans they encounter are driven more by their principles of unity and equality than by any individual leader. Their spirit of community and hope inspires the students to renew their struggle against racism in the United States.

Keli Ross-Ma’u, a music student from the U.S., studies and performs with the Pamberi Steel Orchestra in Trinidad, the birth place of the steel pan. Ross-Ma’u gets an insider’s experience of the Panyard, a community center where people of all ages from the surrounding neighborhood gather for steel pan rehearsals, and he learns how the country’s unique instrument and personal methods of teaching music create a close bond within the community. At the end of the semester, Ross-Ma’u switches roles from a player to a conductor, when he composes two new songs for the steel pan, and holds his own rehearsals with the Pamberi Orchestra who learn and play his songs in a concert.  This is Ross-Ma'u's first feature. 

Once at the cross-roads of the Contra war, Jinotega has evolved to a peaceful city in the highlands of Nicaragua. In the summer of 2007, a California family returned there to create a cultural happening: Jinotega Vibra! The First Annual International Jinotega Shoot and Show Film Festival. Based on the Nicaraguan love of poetry and ribald humor, it was shot, edited and screened in one week featuring local barrio actors and crew. It includes a famous Nicaraguan novelist-poet who reads from her work and a delightful cameo by the mayor of Jinotega as the maestro of his own Escuela de Danza. This is the story of the Making of the Festival, in English and Spanish with some subtitles. 

JPAC: A Hero's Mission" follows a JPAC team (Joint POW/MIA Accounting Commad) into the jungles of Vietnam to search for three Americans missing since 1968. The documentary was also filmed at the JPAC labs in Hawaii with the dedicated forensic scientists, military and civilian teams who risk their lives everyday, around the globe, to search for America's lost heroes.

'Bob Marley & Friends' is a loving extravaganza of Reggae Music sight and sound, bringing the 'Natural Mystic' to life through never-before-released live footage, and tribute performances by loved ones such as Marley's sons Ziggy, Stephen, and Ky-Mani; plus Rita Marley and the I-Threes. Also featured is Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Seal, Tracy Chapman, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and many others. Don't miss this stunning homage honoring the persistent icon and legend of Jamaica's number one Native Son: Robert Nesta Marley.

This film follows Speaker and Mrs. Gingrich on their 'walking tour' through Washington, D.C. Through the tour of the monuments and memorials viewers will see how our Founders viewed morality and civic virtue as essential to the health of the republic. They will learn, or rediscover, that religion is woven into the very fabric of the nation. When Thomas Jefferson wrote 'the God who gave us life gave us liberty' in 1781, he was acknowledging that the rights and liberties of all mankind come not from a king or a government but from a deeper source.  Hear from best-selling author Walter Isaacson, Attorney General Edwin Meese III, authors and historians H.W. Brands and Douglas Brinkley, and more. 

Five young activists with diverse convictions embark on a quest to affect political change, each in their own unique way. But can regular citizens really change the system nowadays? The 60's activist, Tom Hayden, advises them and compares his own experiences. Amazingly, in the process, these individuals must change themselves.