'Reel' Insight Into the World Through Annual Film Festival

The ninth annual Reel Voices Film Festival at the library is nearly underway and residents are again in store for a showcase of films that highlight the human spirit persisting through horrendous situaions.

The films this year range from the familiar – like a documentary on author Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and a film examing how subjects cope with loss wrought by devastating acts of terrorism – all the way to the foreign, like a showcase film on gang violence in America's urban jungles, as well as an exploratory piece on massive corruption in Cambodia.

"I'm just really excited. Every year the turnout has been really encouraging," said Supervising Librarian Roberta Panjwani, who scours the Tribeca Film Festival each year for the right films for Ridgewood. "I know this audience really cares and often people think the may not be interested but then they come out really enlightened because we have a speaker that can provide the context. I'm just happy I have a little chance to offer some of what New York and other areas have."

The series begins on Wednesday, October 12 with a free preview screening on "Hey Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird," which pores through the life of the author and a book that's become required reading for generations of Americans. "You get a real insight into her [Lee], why she never published again and just why this novel and film resonates just as strongly today," Panjwani said.

Two days later the audience will immerse themselves in the raw and bloody Chicago gang world with independent film "The Interrupters." The film tells the intimiate, grueling story of three "Violence Interrupters," reformed former gang members who return to their former lives with a different purpose in mind – to cut the cancer of violence and guns that plagues the city. Robin Holmes, of the NYC Mission, will be the featured speaker on Friday. Holmes' organization closely mirrors Cease Fire, the group chronicled in "The Interrupters".

The Reel Voices Film series continues to explore themes of violence with the Sean Penn-produced "Love Hate Love," which ties together the lives of three families who faced unimaginable loss due to terrorism acts on September 11th and the bombings of Bali and London. "It outlines their unbelievable grief but also that they literally decided how they could choose love or hate," Panjwani said. The "incredibly inspiring and uplifting" tale shows the emotional metamorphasis and how each of the three families came to dedicate their lives to charity.

If you saw the Robert Redford blockbuster "The Horse Whisperer," you'll be familiar with the story of "Buck". An abused child, Buck Brannaman channeled the hard hand he'd been dealt into understanding and communicating with horses. "He was sent to a foster home and realized violence is never the answer – that's not how you help a child and certainly not how you treat an animal," Panjwani said. Brannaman travels to ranches tending to "horses with people problems." Toby Shimin, the editor, will be on hand with people from the production on November 5.

If you're looking for a shocking and eye-opening film that uncovers a seedy world of international corruption, "Who Killed Chea Vichea" will be right up your alley.

"Vichea was a union representative for worker rights and he was just shot in the clear light of day and they [the government] kind of pinned the murder on two different people that had nothing to do with it at all," said Panjwani. "Basically it exposes the corrupition that goes on in Cambodia. It's very eye opening so I thought it would be great to have the producer come in and give some background about this really complicated history and what we can do in this town."

The Cambodia Project of the Ridgewood Village Schools leaders, Liz Louizides, G.W. Principal Katie Kashmanian and Karen and Bart Feder will be part of the panel discussion.

Ultimately, Panjwani is looking for the audience to come away with something perhaps we're all striving for – enlightenment.

"I think we need to be aware of the corruption in a small country like Cambodia, how it might mirror some corruption that goes on in this country but also how that there are very practical ways we can get involved," she said, pointing to the work of the Ridgewood Cambodia Project.

Teachers in town can attend for professional development credits; students too can receive extra credit. The films are $5 per person and The Library Cafe will have light supper items available.