Page 5 - 2025 WHFF

Saturday, July 26 through Saturday, August 2, 2025

Prime Minister The Chaplain & The Doctor from Brewton, Alabama, attended a party in Jay,
Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz • USA • 2025 • 101 min. Jessica Zitter • USA • 2025 • 86 min. only to wind up dead, a gunshot from a hunting rifle
through his back. Robert Floyd, a young white man,
A view inside the life of former New Zealand Prime Betty Clark is an 80-year-old hospital chaplain and is arrested and put on trial for second degree murder.
Minister Jacinda Ardern, capturing her through one of few African American women on staff at The truths that emerge rip open deep wounds from
five tumultuous years in power and beyond as she Highland Hospital, the trauma center in Oakland, the past between the black and white communities
redefined leadership on the world stage. California. Jessica Zitter is a white physician who and lead towards reckoning with a dark history of
Jacinda Ardern’s outlook is summarized by a quote has worked on the Palliative Care team with Betty racial violence that includes a shockingly similar fatal
from her childhood hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton: for over a decade, caring for patients who are ap- shooting that took place almost a century before.
“Optimism is true moral courage.” She reluctantly proaching the ends of their lives. Their relationship
took on what she called “the worst job in politics” as took years to develop, originally beset by racial
Leader of the Opposition. Then as prime minister, tensions on the team and a professional hierarchy
Ardern went on to lead with humanity, compas- that siloes and divides. But over many years, their PANEL DISCUSSION
sion, and common sense. She didn’t hesitate to professional relationship blossoms into a deep and
implement nationwide gun law reforms following a caring friendship which supports them both as they In Conversation with Elijah Wald
devastating mass shooting and guided her country work to provide the best care possible— one patient
through the pandemic by relying on science — even at a time. Thursday, July 31, 1 pm, Community Hall
at the expense of her own popularity. The Gas Station Attendant Boston-based music writer and critic Jim
Rebel with a Clause Karla Murthy • USA • 2025 • 83 min. Sullivan and Ty Burr, film critic, will join Elijah
Brandt Johnson • USA • 2025 • 86 min. A daughter reflects on her father’s life — weaving Wald, musician and author whose books have
One fall day, Ellen Jovin set up a folding table on a the story of his miraculous journey from the streets served as the inspiration for critically acclaimed
Manhattan sidewalk with a homemade sign that of India with the realities of life in America. Using films such as INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS and A
said “Grammar Table.” Right away, passersby began recorded phone calls with her dad while he worked COMPLETE UNKNOWN. He has toured as a
excitedly asking questions, telling stories, and filing nights at a gas station along with home movies past performer on five continents and served as
complaints. What happened next is the stuff of and present, this deeply intimate film is a medita-
grammar legend. Ellen and her filmmaker husband, tion on family, the immigrant experience, and the student and accompanist to the founding
Brandt Johnson, took the table on the road, visiting dreams we carry with us. folk-blues revivalists Dave Van Ronk and Eric
all 50 states as Brandt shot the grammar action. The Librarians Von Schmidt, the legendary Congolese guitarist
People from every imaginable background visited Jean-Bosco Mwenda, and toured for five years
the table to share a laugh, settle disputes, and talk Kim A. Snyder • USA • 2025 • 92 min. with the African-American string-band master
about their grammar insecurities. But this story As an unprecedented wave of book banning is
transcends grammar. It’s the story of an epic quest sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond, librarians un- Howard Armstrong. He was the Boston Globe’s
in a divided time to bring us closer together. der siege join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for world and roots music correspondent for twenty
Room For Us? Confronting intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy. years. His books include Escaping the Delta:
Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues;
Nantucket’s Housing Crisis The Quiet Diplomat Narcocorrido, about the Mexican ballads of drug
Patrick Kennedy, Jasper Craven • USA • 2025 • 85 min. Charles Lyons • USA • 2025 • 65 min. smuggling and social struggle; Global Minstrels:
Where do you go when the average home price is Along with his family, Ban Ki-moon was displaced Voices of World Music; Dave Van Ronk’s memoir,
during the Korean War. The UN Command fought
$4.5 Million, the cheapest freestanding house costs on the side of South Korea and forever changed The Mayor of MacDougal Street, which inspired
$1.8 Million, and you’re 30 miles out to sea? Despite Ban’s life, inspiring him to become a man who the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis; How the
significant investments in affordable housing and the fought for peace throughout his career. Nearly fifty
efforts of a committed group of housing advocates, years later, Ban was selected as the 8th Secretary Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative
the unique pressures of living on a vacation island that General of the UN. His ‘quiet diplomacy’ helped to History of American Popular Music; The Dozens:
caters to billionaires and millionaires has many locals promote multilateralism at a time when collabora- A History of Rap’s Mama; and Dylan Goes Elec-
asking: “Does Nantucket have room for us?” tion between countries is a key to our survival. tric!, which inspired the hit movie, A Complete
Steve Schapiro: Third Act Unknown, which was based on his book about
Being Everywhere Tasashi Nakamura • USA • 2025 • 91 min. Bob Dylan’s relationship to Pete Seeger and
journey towards rock ‘n’ roll, Dylan Goes Electric!
Maura Smith • USA • 2025 • 71 min. Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “the Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split
Traveling on his own to Arkansas to photograph godfather of Asian American media,” but filmmaker the Sixties..
migrant workers in 1961 gave Steve Schapiro his Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. What begins as a
start as a photojournalist. He went on to photo- documentary about his father’s career takes a turn
graph Andy Warhol, Muhammed Ali, David Bowie, with a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis, and evolves into
the Selma March, James Baldwin, John Lewis, Ray an exploration on art, activism, grief, and fatherhood.
Charles, Barbra Streisand, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Unearth
and countless more - bearing witness to some of
the most significant social and cultural moments in Aube Strickland, John Hunter Nolan, Dune
modern American history. Strickland • USA • 2024 • 93 min.
Amid the global race for critical minerals essential
to energy and national security, Bristol Bay’s com-
mercial salmon fishermen and Indigenous leaders
confront the prospect of North America’s largest-
ever copper mine in their beloved homeland, expos-
ing the mining industry’s systemic recklessness
while proving the power of community activism.
Viva Verdi!
Yvonne Russo • USA • 2024 • 77 min.
An intimate glimpse into the lives of the celebrated What is That Thing?
opera singers and musicians currently living our
their ‘third act’ while mentoring international music This year’s Festival art features the fascinating
students who live among them at Milan’s unique re- axolotl. The axolotl is a type of paedomorphic
tirement home, Casa Verdi, built by Giuseppe Verdi salamander, meaning they retain their juvenile
in 1896. As stories of romance, tragedy and triumph features into adulthood and never undergo
Wednesday, July 30 abound from these living treasures, it’s easy to see full metamorphosis. Unlike most amphibians,
10:00pm • Captain Kidd Verdi’s vision thriving - a life-affirming reminder of axolotls remain fully aquatic throughout their
how music moves us at a fundamental level; how
Vanna Pacella nurturing artistic expression can be life- enhancing lives, sporting external gills and a perpetual
and nourishing to the spirit at any age; and how
smile that has made them a favorite among
and Tom Davis one distinctive retirement home has reclaimed and pet owners and researchers alike.
enriched thousands of artists’ lives.
Vanna’s haunting vocals, keyboard solos, and Welcome to Jay Native to Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City,
profound lyricism will suck you in and caress Jeffrey Morgan • USA • 2024 • 105 min. axolotls are critically endangered in the wild
you with its carefully crafted imagery. Tom’s Jay is a predominantly white town in the rural coun- due to habitat destruction and pollution.
guitar playing makes a statement- each solo tryside of northwest Florida. Ask anyone who lives in However, they thrive in captivity and are
layered with brilliant callbacks- it is tasteful, the area – Black or white – and you’ll likely hear that widely studied for their incredible regenerative
engaging, and beautifully raw. Debut Album the town simply does not welcome black people abilities—they can regrow limbs, parts of their
“Listen” out July 25th. and almost no one, inside or outside the commu- heart, and even sections of their brain!
nity, knows the origins of the town’s reputation. It
simply persists. In 2010, Gus Benjamin, a Black teen