Houston World Fest will run April 17 - 26, 2009
WorldFest was founded 49 years ago as Cinema Arts, an International Film Society in August, 1961. WorldFest became the third competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York. WorldFest is the oldest Independent Film & Video Festival in the World. It evolved into a competitive International Film Festival in April, 1968. It was founded by award-winning producer/director Hunter Todd to present a quality film festival for the Independent filmmakers. Hunter Todd has been honored with more than 115 international awards for creative excellence in film production, and he has been the producer, director, writer and/or cameraman on more than 300 motion picture and video productions. The mission/vision statement of WorldFest is - to recognize and honor outstanding creative excellence in film & video, to validate brilliant abilities and to promote cultural tourism for Houston, to develop film production in the region and to add to the rich cultural fabric of the city of Houston. All members of the WorldFest staff are filmmakers.

WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival (now it’s 42nd year!) continues with its totally dedicated Independent Film screening format for the upcoming April 16- 25, 2009 unspooling at the flagship AMC Studio 30 Dunvale Theaters. WorldFest will screen just 55-60 feature film and 100 Short Film Premieres, with a complete and absolute emphasis on the American and International Independent feature films and with a continuing annual spotlight on an individual country and its films. WorldFest also offers competition in TV Production, Documentary, Corporate & Business Films, Student & Experimental, TV Commercials, Film & Video Production, Music Videos, New Media (Interactive & Web Sites) and unproduced Screenplays.

WorldFest is one of the oldest and largest film & video competitions in the world, with more than 4,500 category entries.




1. 40th Door, The (Azerbajain) Director: Elchin Musaoglu ~ A young boy whose father was killed by Russian Mafia struggles to support his family but is determined to fulfill his only wish: to become a musician.
2. 9mm (Belgium) Director: Taylan Barman ~ Behind a door at the end of a hallway, the sound of a gunshot is heard. Is it murder? Suicide? Or was it an accident?
3. Air (Japan) Director: Ryotaro Muramatsu ~ When a young woman’s childhood friend comes back to their hometown with another woman, she is hit with complex feelings.
4. All For Liberty (USA) Director: Chris Weatherhead ~ The true story of how Henry Felder fought for Separation from the English King, in 1776, months before Thomas Jefferson wrote his renowned Declaration of Independence.
5. Alone (Issiz Adam) Turkey Director: Cagan Irmak ~ Alper, a young chef who is a womanizer begins to fall in love with Ada, a modest young 20-something who owns a shop and designs children’s costumes but his old habits are difficult to leave in the past.
6. Angel and the Weightlifter, The ~ (Greece) Director: Eleni Alesandrakis ~ As a light & sound multi show is prepared in the crater of an ancient volcano on the Greek island of Nissyros, friction between Angel, the show’s producer and the Weightlifter, the local guardian of the volcano grows and grows until it eventually erupts into a fatal accident.
7. Automorphosis (USA) Director: Harrod Blank ~ The stories of ArtCar artists and how they were inspired.
8. Baker, The (USA/Ireland) Director: Gareth Lewis ~ Milo, a professional hit man running from his obligations, hides out in a remote village and becomes its new baker.
9. Balancing the Books (USA) Director: Meir Sharony ~ An attractive woman enlists the help of her two best friends to confront a traumatic experience she can no longer deny. With Lea Thompson, Dina Myer & Ed Begley, Jr.
10. Bedknobs and Broomsticks ~ (USA) Director: Robert Stevenson~ In this enchanting musical, Eglantine Price (Angela Lansbury) is an apprentice witch who with 3 children and a cynical conman search for the missing component (substitutionary locomotion) to a magic spell which will be useful to the defense of Great Britain during WWII.
11. Bitter/Sweet (USA) Director: Jeff Hare - with actor James Brolin ~ A romantic comedy where a young coffee expert has his life turned upside down when his boss sends him to Thailand in search of what he believes to be the common robusta coffee bean.
12. Blue Cobalt Night (Una Notte Blu Cobalto ~ Italy) Director: Daniele Gangemi ~ Cobalt Blue is a whimsical tale that follows first-time pizza deliverer, Dino Malaspina, who realizes that his deliveries contain more than what’s expected.
13. Border (Armenia) Director: Harutyun Khachatryan ~ In the post-soviet period, after the Armenian-Azeri conflict, we follow the life of a village, located at the border, when the villagers find a buffalo.
14. Cuba-Libre (Spain) Director: Rai Garcia ~ After being evicted from their Kultural center, a group of squatters enter the Cuban Embassy in Madrid at the same time that Fidel Castro announces the first democratic elections...
15. Death of Alice Blue (Canada) Director: Park Bench ~ This is a campy look at the way vampires infiltrated a top ad agency in Canada.
16. Disappeared, The (UK) Director: Johnny Kervorkian ~ A supernatural thriller that finds 17 year old Matthew after the abduction and possible murder of his 8 year old brother trying to find out what really happened. With Greg Wise, Alex Jennings, Harry Treadaway & tom Felton (Harry Potter)
17. Disappearing Male, The Director: Marc DeGuerre ~ This documentary exposes one of the most important, and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the male reproductive system. +double featurette + Mysteries of the Great Lakes.(Canada) Director: David Lickley. A video journey through the greatest fresh-water system in the world.
18. Earth (USA) Director: Alastair Fothergill ~ This documentary follows three animal families and their amazing journeys across the planet we all call home. Narrated by James Earl Jones and Patrick Stewart.

19. Emilio USA director: Kim Jorgensen~ A young Mexican man searches for his sister in Los Angeles when he suspects that she was kidnapped by a local mafia kingpin.
20. Favorite Son (USA) Howard Libov ~ An aging baseball player still in the minor leagues goes home to discover that the ghosts of the past still have not died.
21. Flying By (USA) Director: Jim Amatulli – with actors Billy Ray Cyrus, Heather Locklear, Patricia Neal & High School Musical’s Olesya Rulin ~ When a successful developer goes to his 25th high school re-union and reunites with his high school band buddies, he gets a new lease on life but may have to sacrifice some things he still values.
22. Foodfight (USA) Director: Chris Taylor ~ A fast-paced and entertaining documentary which looks at how the Organic food movement began in California and how the huge agribusiness truly works in the USA.
23. Friends For Life (USA) Director: Michael Spence ~ Raising 4 orphaned wolf puppies becomes a journey of discovery for a recently widowed man and his family.
24. From Heaven (Quand tu descendras du ciel ~ France) Director: Éric Guirado ~ A young country boy is torn between supporting his family or saving a friend.
25. Giovanna's Father (Il Papa di Giovanna - Italy) Director: Pupi Avati – with actor Silvio Orlando~ During WW2, A father fights for his mentally ill daughter when she is accused of murder.
26. God's Little Garden (U Pana Boga Wogrodku -Poland) Director: Jacek Bromski ~ A small town in Poland is turned upside down when a witness protection plan member comes to live to rehabilitate his life.
27. Gooby (USA) Director: Wilson Coneybeare – with actors Robbie Coltrane, Eugene Levy, David James Elliott ~ An 11 year old boy’s teddy bear comes to life as a six foot friend who helps him overcome the consequences of his over-active imagination
28. Heart of Texas, The (USA) Director: Mitch Wright ~ When tragedy pierces the heart of a small community on the quiet Texas plains, its townspeople witness what can happen when grace and forgiveness triumph over anguish and outrage. +double featurette Running for My Father (USA) Director: Cody Westheimer ~ A young man pays tribute to his Father by training to run in the Houston marathon which marks one year after his Father’s succumbing to a brain tumor.
29. Home (USA) Director: Mary Haverstick – with actors Marcia Gay Harden, Michael Gaston and Paul L. Nolan~ A young mother must deal with the aftermath of losing a breast to cancer along with a husband who is distant and a child who is very precocious.
30. Idiots and Angels (USA) animation Bill Plympton ~ A dark comedy about a man's battle for his soul. Preceeded by Plympton’s short, Hot Dog.
31. Illusion of Fear, The (Russia) Director: Aleksandr Kiriyenko~ A Russian industrialist has reoccurring dreams of what he suspects may be past life experiences ~ as King Solomon.
32. Is Anybody There? (UK) Director: John Crowley ~ A young boy whose parents run a hospice becomes obsessed with death and the dying until an old magician (Michael Caine) who comes to live there helps him to overcome his morbidity.
33. It All Begins at Sea ~ (Hakol Mathil Bayam (Israel) Director: Eitan Green ~ A young couple decides to have another child when their teenage age has a close brush with death but there are many obstacles and challenges ahead of them.
34. Kings of the Evening (USA) Director: Andrew P. Jones ~ Five strangers, each struggling to survive as they scratch and scheme to dig their way out of poverty, find comfort in an underground contest that can make them feel like a king, just for one evening.
35. La France (France) Director: Serge Bozon ~ During WWI, a French woman disguises herself as a man in order to find her husband on the front lines.
36. Lahore (India) Director: Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan~ Two brothers, competing in two different sports, kickboxing and cricket witness the consequences of politics and nationalism involvement in the world of sporting tournaments.
37. Lucky Days (USA) Directors: Angelica Torn, Tony Torn – with actors Rip Torn and Will Patton ~ The summer before it was torn down, Coney Island regulars must come to terms with a changing landscape amidst their entertaining but highly dysfunctional lives.
38. Mario the Magician (Mario und der Zauberer -Hungary) Director: Tamas Almasi ~ An Italian entrepreneur builds a new shoe manufacturing shop in Hungary and his top aide, a married woman begins to fall in love with him
39. Me and My sister ( Les soeurs fachées, ~ France) Director: Alexandra Leclère ~ For three days running, two sisters with opposing characters are forced to co-exist.
40. Messenger, The (USA) Director: Shawn S. Welling ~ A documentary about four “Texas Style” characters and how their life experiences led them to the lives they now lead on Bolivar Peninsula.
41. Not Here to be Loved (je ne suis pas la pour etre aime-France) Stephane Brize~ A fifty year old man bored with his existence becomes rekindled with hope in life after he begins to take his first tango lesson.
42. On the Count of Zero (Sifir Dedigimde ~ Turkey) Director: Gokhan Yorgancigil ~ When a young and mysterious girl tries hypnosis to remember how she misplaced a precious book, she is lead on a fantastic journey into the ancient capital of the east, Istanbul.
43. On the Ropes (Dans les Cordes) (France) Director: Magaly Richard-Serrano Two young women raised as sisters must face each other in the boxing ring and soon their families have to deal with the consequences of winners and losers.
44. Out of Control (China) Director: Weidong Yuan ~ When a man whose career with a new car manufacturer begins be chaotic, he decides to take a long road trip which soon has fantasy and reality overlapping in a magical realism.
45. Outsider, The (Mexico) Director: Rafael Piňero~ Tired of being bullied, a high school student turns to violence in order to find respect and acceptance.
46. Palo Pinto Gold (USA) Director: Anthony Henslee ~ Country legends Roy Clark and Mel Tillis are 1930’s comrades that recount an infamous Texas Rangers gun brawl set in the late 1800’s with a special appearance of Kinky Friedman as the Texas
47. Panic (Panik - Hungary) Director: Attilla Till ~ When a young woman wakes up one morning with panic attacks, she is confronted with one choice: she remains anxious forever or she pulls herself together and starts a new life.
48. PigHunt (USA) ~midnight madness) Director: Jim Isaac ~ As a young man invites his friends to spend the weekend in his uncle’s remote ranch, they all begin tracking the awful truth about his uncle's demise and the legend of The Ripper.
49. Prince of Cockfighting (Philippines) Director: Yeng Grande ~ When a young man begins searching for the best gamecock, he ends up finding love instead.
50. Ratatouille (USA) Directors: Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava~ A young rat named Remy follows his dream to cook by going to Paris and makes an unusual alliance with a restaurant’s new garbage boy in this Oscar winning animation.
51. Shadows in the Sun (UK) Director: David Rocksavage – with actress Jean Simmons ~ Set in the late 1960s, a mysterious young loner changes the lives of one family and helps them rediscover their roots and deep affection for one another.

52. Small Crime (Greece) Director: Christos Georgiou ~ On a very small Greek Island, a young police officer’s life changes as he finds himself investigating the death of one of the island’s inhabitants.
53. Sounds Like Teen Spirit (UK) Director: Jamie J. Johnson ~ This documentary follows the journey of 4 loveable contenders as they compete in the Jr. Eurovision Awards, the world’s largest children’s song-writing contest including all the foibles of growing up along the way.

54. Stellina Blue (USA) Director: Gabe Scott ~ After having been through a terrible accident, a normally reclusive young woman is given a second chance at life and an extraordinary gift.(with Christina Mauro, WorldFest & UH alumni)
55. Torn From the Flag (USA/Hungary) Directors: Klaudia Kovacs, Endre Hules ~ In 1956, Hungary throws off the tyranny of the giant Soviet Union for 13 days, which will have unbelievable consequences on the world.
56. Under Our Skin (USA) Director: Andy Abrahams Wilson ~ A documentary about Lyme disease and how it often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.
57. Waiting for the Sun (Aspettando il Sole ~ Italy) Director: Ago Panini ~ One long night, three bad boys come across a remote hotel and take the hotel’s night porter hostage.
58. What’s Up? (Wesh, Wesh qu’est-ce qui se passe? ~ France) Director: Rabah Ameur-Zaïméche ~ After being deported from France, a young man returns to his old neighborhood and is faced with its social decomposition.
59. Wind Blows Around, The (Il Vento Fa Il Suo Giro ~ Italy) Director: Giorgiu Diritti ~ When a young French couple moves to a dying little Italian village in the Alps, they do their best to rejuvenate the place but acquire many enemies along the way.
60. Work Hard, Play Hard (Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré ~ France) Director: Jean-Marc Moutout ~ A young consultant struggles to convince himself and his entourage of the merits of his new assignment.

There are also 70 Short Films and their Directors being screened. More may come.





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