Heartland Film Festival 2008

Amal , a multi-layered portrait of contemporary India, follows an auto-rickshaw driver in New Delhi who is content with his small but vital role in the world around him. One day, he drives an eccentric billionaire who, disguised as a vagabond, is searching the streets for the last morsel of humanity--someone he can feel comfortable leaving his fortune to. With one passenger, Amal's life may change forever. Amal serves up a visual feast for audiences. Filmed on location in New Delhi, this modern-day fable asks the important question of what success means to each individual and ultimately reveals that the poorest of men are sometimes, in fact, the richest. Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

Could you forgive a person who murdered your family? This is the question faced by the subjects of As We Forgive , a documentary about two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the country's 1994 genocide. Viewers meet Rosaria, a genocide widow whose forgiving spirit inspires her sister's murderer, Saveri, to build Rosaria a new house. Will his token of shame convince Rosaria of his change of heart? And will Saveri do whatever it takes to regain her trust? Viewers also journey alongside Chantale, a survivor who confronts her father's killer, John, for the first time in 14 years. Will John pursuade Chantale that he has truly changed? And will Chantale forgive John for murder? Questions like these have no easy answers. The subjects of As We Forgive speak for a nation still reeling from a genocide that exterminated nearly one million Rwandans. Overwhelmed by a backlog of court cases, more than 50,000 perpetrators of the genocide have been released to the communities they helped to destroy. Heartland Content Key: AT (contains Adult Themes, not suitable for children); V (contains scenes of mild Violence) Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

Narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, Blessed is the Match is the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet who became a paratroooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc. Safe in Palestine in 1944, Hannah joined a mission to rescue Jews in her native Hungary. It was the only outside rescue mission for jews during the Holocaust. Hannah parachuted behind enemy lines, was captured, tortured and ultimately executed. Incredibly, her mother catherine witnessed the entire ordeal, first as a prisoner with Hannah and later as her advocate, braving the bombed out streets of Budapest in a desperate attempt to save her daughter. With unprecedented access to the Senesh archive, Blessed is the Match unfolds through the writings and photographs of Hannah and Catherine Senesh. It reveals British-controlled Palestine during the war and explores the Kibbutz Movement, which drew Hannah and other idealistic Jews there in the hopes of building a Jewish state. Heartland Content Key: AT (contains Adult Themes, not suitable for children) Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

Abu Raed is an airport janitor, but the local children would beg to differ, believing the storyteller to be a worldly pilot. This story of forgiveness and sacrifice shows friendship knows no social boundaries. Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

This collection features six of this year's seven Crystal Heart Award-winning short films. The movies included cover subject matter ranging from an orphanage in Central America to a piano kept in a homeless shelter to the plight of a young watchmaker just trying to impress his father. One regular Festival screening ticket grants admission to this entire series of short films. Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

Andrej and his family have been living illegally in Germany for years. When his son reaches school age, he can't hide any longer. Mischa's future is at stake, and as a father, he's willing to do whatever it takes to ensure a bright one, whatever the risks. Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

All 10-year-old Karla wants for Christmas is herfamily together, but since her parents' divorce, Karla's father has been distant. Her mom and step-dad are too busy to bake cookies and are in no mood for trimming the tree. It's all too much for Karla to handle. She decides to run away to her friend Molly's house, but Molly is already enroute to the perfect family Christmas with her grandparents. Disillusioned, Karla wanders off and befriends a homeless man named Buster. Heartland Content Key: L (contains some mild language) Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!

On a Honduran mountainside overlooking vast fields of sugar cane, a six-year-old boy named Marlon dreams of becoming an artist. Twelve-year-old Inri dreams of attending university. Little Yorleni simply dreams of having a family. Meet the children of the Montaña de Luz orphanage, their lives a living testament to the beauty and innocence of childhood in the face of adversity beyond their years. With artistry and honesty, the camera paints a stirring portrait of a loving community where nothing is truly certain but hope and where each birthday is a celebration of dreams fulfilled and dreams to come. Heartland Content Key: AT (contains adult themes not suitable for children) Visit the Box Office to purchase your screening and special event tickets today!