Best of Input: Television Out of the Box

The World’s Most Provocative Public Television Programs

Date: Sunday, January 29, 2012 (All day) - Friday, February 3, 2012 (All day)

Location: Goethe-Institut, La Maison Française, Silverdocs/American Film Institute, the Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, WHUT/Howard University Television

Sunday, January 29 – Friday, February 3, 2012

Selections from the world’s most innovative and provocative productions by public broadcasters appear at venues around Washington during Best of INPUT.

INPUT, the International Public Television Conference, is an annual producers’ screening and discussion showcase. Held in cities around the world since 1978, the conference reviews submissions from over sixty countries. A number of the international jury-selected finalists from the May 2011 conference in Seoul will be screened and discussed.

All programs are free but reservations may be required for certain screenings (see individual listings)

Presented in parntership with:

Goethe-Institut

La Maison Française

Silverdocs/American Film Institute

Embassy of Brazil

The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital

Center for Social Media

WHUT/Howard University Television

Women in Film and Video

In cooperation with INPUT, the International Public Television Screening Conference

Sunday, January 29, 3:00 pm

La Maison Française, 4101 Reservoir Road NW

Moloch Tropical

France, 106 min., drama, director: Raoul Peck

In a fortress perched on the top of a mountain in northern Haiti, a democratically elected "President" and his closest collaborators get ready for a state celebration with many international guests. Meanwhile, the country is in turmoil. As the day goes on, the rebellion worsens.

RSVP: http://taboo-input2012-auto.eventbrite.com/

Monday, January 30, 5:30 pm

Silverdocs/American Film Institute, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD

Village Without Women / Selo bez žena

Bosnia & Herzogovina, 83 min., documentary, director: Srđan Šarenac

Three Serbian brothers, all bachelors, live in a womanless village in southern Serbia. Not finding any Serbian women interested in living in their isolated village, they decide to try their luck with Albanian women from villages across the border, whose men are mostly working in wealthier countries of the European Union. An entertaining portrait of rural life and the need to make choices to achieve your goals.

Tuesday, January 31, 6:30 pm

Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh Street, NW

Unusual Programming from Germany and Switzerland

RSVP: 202-289-1200 ext. 169 or rsvp@washington.goethe.org

20x Brandenburg – Warriors without Enemies / Krieger ohne Feind

(One episode of twenty)

Germany, 15’, television piece, director: Burhan Qurbani

Part of a project to mark the twentieth anniversary of the eastern German state of Brandenburg. This episode is a “play with reality,” young right-wing extremists in a rural setting are supposed to take part in a social rehabilitation program and learn to sing together. Their teacher is from Cameroon.

Either Broder. On Safari in Germany / Entweder Broder

Germany, 30’, television-specific episode, writer/directors: Joachim Schröder & Tobias Streck

Henryk M. Broder and Hamed Abdel Samad travelled across Germany with their specially customized colorful Volvo. They spoke with “aryans,” vegetarians, fundamentalists, socialists, friends of peace, and war profiteers. They covered a distance of 30,000 km on their safari in Germany, with Jesus, Mohammed, and Moses on board and a fox terrier named Wilma in the back seat.

Low Cost (Claude Jutra)

Switzerland, 60’, fiction, director: Lionel Baier

Shot entirely using a mobile phone, this fiction film’s main character has known the date of his death since he was nine years old. As it approaches, he spends his final moments with those dear to him. A fiction film about the value of human life in an age where everything is at a “discount.”

Wednesday, February 1, 6:30 pm

Goethe-Institut, 812 Seventh Street, NW

Presented by the Embassy of Brazil at the Goethe-Institut Washington

RSVP: 202-289-1200 ext. 170 or rsvp@washington.goethe.org.

Home Key / Chave da Casa

Brazil, 60 min., documentary, Directors: Paschoal Samora, Stela Grisotti

The documentary follows the last 48 hours of a group of Palestinians in the refugee camp of Al-Rweished, on the border between Jordan and Iraq, before leaving for Brazil. They leave behind family, friends and a past full of memories. Nine months later, the film follows five of them in different points of Brazil, showing their adaptation issues, their fears for family safety, for the ones that were left behind in the Middle East, the country, the uncertainties and hopes for a new future.

Thursday, February 2, 7:00 pm

The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington DC 20003

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

USA, 81 min., documentary, directors: Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a leading Vietnam War strategist, concludes that America’s role in the war is based on decades of lies. He leaks 7,000 pages of top-secret documents to the New York Times, a daring act of conscience that leads directly to Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation, and the end of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg and a who’s-who of Vietnam-era movers and shakers give a riveting account of those world-changing events in this production.

Friday, February 3, 8:00 pm

WHUT Broadcast Event, www.whut.org

Nora

USA, 35 min., dance documentary, directors: Alla Kovgan & David Hinton

Choreographer: Nora Chipaumire

Shot in Southern Africa, Nora is based on childhood memories of the self-exiled dancer Nora Chipaumire who was born in Zimbabwe in 1965. Using performance and dance, she brings her history to life in a swiftly-moving poem of sound and image.

The next INPUT Conference will be held May 7-11, 2012 in Sydney, Australia, hosted by Australian public broadcasters, ABC-TV and SBS. More information at: www.inputsydney.com