Jungle Beat
South Africa / English / 30 min / Grades K-3

Jungle Beat is a series of 5-minute animated shorts telling stories about a bunch of different animals and the bizarre things they do. There’s the bee who’s allergic to pollen, the giraffe who’s afraid of heights, the frog who keeps losing his voice, and a whole lot more. An lot of fun for children of all ages.

Screening Times:
2/15 11:00am, 2/16 9:30am 12:30pm, 2/17 9:30am, 2/18 12:30pm, 2/19 9:30am

Lost in the Woods: The Movie
USA / English / 30 min / Grades K-3

Jump into the springtime forest with a newborn fawn, raccoons, turtles, chipmunks and more. Join an old box turtle (named Shirley) who meets a raccoon (named Fernando Hernandafandavez) that is totally lost in the forest. Shirley helps Fernando discover the magic of spring, as well as the tale of a newborn fawn in the springtime woods. All the animals think the fawn is lost, but is he?

Screening Times:
2/15 11:00am, 2/16 9:30am 12:30pm, 2/17 9:30am, 2/18 12:30pm, 2/19 9:30am

The Riddle in a Bottle
USA / English / 30 min / Grades K-3

Laura and Robert, a.k.a. “The Riddle Solvers,” are two siblings who run a riddle-solving stand, where they solve riddles for 5 cents a piece. We follow them as they solve a mysterious riddle from the ocean that reaches them on an inland lake... in a message in a magic bottle.

Screening Times:
2/15 11:00am, 2/16 9:30am 12:30pm, 2/17 9:30am, 2/18 12:30pm, 2/19 9:30am

Gerald's Last Day
USA / English / 11:30 min / Grades 4-6

Gerald the Dog has been scheduled for termination by the dog pound at 5:00 pm. Today is his last chance to seduce an adopter... can he do it before his time runs out? This is a short stop motion animated film by Shel and Justin Rasch.

Screening Times:
2/15 1:30pm, 2/17 12:30pm, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

Listen to the Children- A Journey of Sharing
Canada / English / 9 min / Grades 4-6

Inspiring others to realize they can make a difference, 12 year old Logan MacGillivray has campaigned across his province to support children in Sierra Leone. “When you are trying to do something good, people will come forward to help,” he says. “So nothing is too big to do.” Logan has raised more than $9,000 to send a shipping container full of school, recreation and building supplies to Sierra Leone and is continuing to do so. Logan recently won a ‘Me to We Award’ and was featured in the Oct. 2009 issue of Canadian Living Magazine. This is Logan’s film.

Screening Times:
2/15 1:30pm, 2/17 12:30pm, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

Magellan
USA / English / 18 min / Grades 4-6

Set against the backdrop of industrial Atlanta, our scrawny hero Magellan, walks to and from middle school everyday with his popular, latch-key classmate, Tiana. Their precarious friendship is jeopardized when Magellan works up the foolhardy courage to ask her to the upcoming Spring Dance.

Screening Times:
2/15 1:30pm, 2/17 12:30pm, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

The Misadventures of Milo Weatherby
USA 2009 / English / 23 min / Grades 4-6

Milo Weatherby is the next Thomas Edison... or at least he’d like to think so. The only problem is Milo’s inventions don’t always work right, if at all. While working on his new invention the “Reverse Microwave,” Milo soon discovers that he has accidentally created a time machine. Convinced by his best friend, Live, the two embark on a mission through time to switch a homework assignment in order to prevent themselves from getting caught cheating.

Screening Times:
2/15 1:30pm, 2/17 12:30pm, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

Paper Princes, Gypsies, And The Boy With No Return Address
Canada 2009 / English / 7 min / Grades 4-6

“Paper Princes, Gypsies, and the Boy With No Return Address” is a story that enters the world of Liam Willow Plinkett, an eccentric 10-year-old boy whose imagination runs wilder than a stampede of buffalo chased by pterodactyls. Abandoned in a willow tree as a baby, Liam is searching for his identity. This is a film about imagination, bullying, wanting to belong and friendship.

Screening Times:
2/15 1:30pm, 2/17 12:30pm, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

Plain and Simple
USA 2008 / English / 24 min / Grades 4-6

"Plain and Simple” is a children’s book come-to-life, combining a unique mixture of animated creatures, sets, and props, with real-life actors. This short film is essentially a moral tale about the value of inner beauty and the struggle to belong. The story is centered upon the plight of a plain little penguin named Pauly who is threatened with removal from the birdhouse of a zoo run by money-grubbing capitalists simply because he does not generate enough interest to guarantee profits.

Screening Times:
2/15 1:30pm, 2/17 12:30pm, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

7 Days in Slow Motion
India 2009 / English Subtitles / 100 min / Grades 6+

7 Days in Slow Motion introduces us to the Suris, a middle-class family whose son, Ravi, is under tremendous pressure to place first in all his school exams. Ravi, however, aspires more to Bollywood fame than to academic success! This engaging and comical tale of a child who dares to defy his mother’s aspirations offers important life lessons along with numerous insights on important societal issues in India such as child marriage, intergenerational life under one roof, and class-structure stigmas.

Screening Times:
2/16 12:30pm, 2/18 9:30am & 12:30pm, 2/20 1:00pm

Afghan Star
UK 2009 / English / 87 min / Grades 10-12

In Afghanistan you literally risk your life to sing. However, that risk has not stopped some 2,000 people since 2005 from auditioning for cash prizes and a record deal on Tolo TV’s wildly popular America Idol-style series, Afghan Star. Each week, millions of Afghanis tune in to watch the competitors, voting for their favourites via cell phone, a process that is, for many, their first encounter with the democratic process.

Havana Marking’s award-winning documentary follows the dramatic stories of four young Afghan Star finalists – two men and two women – as they hazard everything to become the nation’s favourite performer. The film provides a unique glimpse into Afghanistan’s ongoing, tenuous struggle for modernity and reveals how what North American’s consider frivolous entertainment is downright revolutionary in a place like Afghanistan.

Screening Times:
2/17 9:30am 12:30pm, 2/20 1:00pm

Broken Hill
USA-Australia 2009 / English / 102 min / Grades 7-12

In the tradition of Save the Last Dance, Billy Elliott and August Rush comes the musical drama, Broken Hill, set in a rocky, drought-ridden sheep station in the Australian Outback where Tommy, an aspiring musician and conductor, lives with his demanding father who has little interest in a musical career for his son. Tommy’s friendship with classmate, Kat, a bold and brash beauty, unexpectedly launches his musical career, but not without some unwelcome bumps and crashes along the way!

Broken Hill’s producer, Chris Wyatt, of Napoleon Dynamite fame, will be in attendance at the film’s Canadian premiere on Sunday, February 21, 2010.

Screening Times:
2/19 9:30am Sneak Preview, 2/21 1:00pm Official Closing Film

Moonbeam Bear And His Friends
German 2008 / English / 69 min / Grades K-2

Mr. Moon has fallen from his home in the sky to the forest floor! Luckily for him, Moonbeam Bear finds him and looks after him. Unfortunately, while Moonbeam Bear and Mr. Moon are happily feasting on homemade honey cakes and playing games of checkers, the other forest animals are having a hard time getting around without Mr. Moon lighting up the night sky. Eventually, Badger, Woodpecker, Ladybug, Frog and Rabbit get together to figure out how to get Mr. Moon home. Exciting adventures await them and Mr. Moon as they end up in all sorts of wonderful places they’d never before imagined!

Screening Times:
2/17 12:30pm, 2/18 9:30am, 2/19 12:30pm, 2/20 10:00am

Ricky Rapper
Finland 2008 / English Subtitles / 78 min / Grades 4-6

10-year-old Ricky lives with his aunt Serena. He loves to play the drums and Aunt Serena doesn’t mind the noise! Everything changes, however, when Serena falls ill and her cousin, Fanny the Freezer, moves into take care of the household. Fanny cannot tolerate drumming or any kind of loud noise, and Ricky’s drum gets confiscated. Thankfully, Ricky has a friend in Nelly Butterfly who lives in the same apartment building. Together they find a way to deal with this unexpected and difficult situation.

Screening Times:
2/16 9:30am, 2/19 9:30am

Ratings Explained:
This film has been rated 14A for brief elements of coarse language

The Crocodiles
Germany 2009 / English Subtitles / 92 min / Grades 8-10

This remake for the big screen by director, Christian Ditter, of the 1970’s made-for-TV movie, Vorstadtkrokodile (based on Max von der Grun’s book of the same name) updates the original film’s themes to accommodate current social dynamics among children from a variety of backgrounds growing up together in the suburbs of a German town. Although their backgrounds differ, two things unite the kids in the film: their desire to be part of the coolest gang in town, The Crocodiles; and their need, as part of that gang, to solve a mysterious crime.

Prepare to have all your senses activated by this thrilling story with its spectacular scenes (not a movie for anyone suffering from a fear of heights!), its wheelchair chase and its vibrant and positive view on life in suburbia.

Screening Times:
2/16 9:30am, 2/18 9:30am, 2/19 12:30pm

The Letter For The King
Finland 2008 / English Subtitles / 78 min / Grades 4-6

In this epic adventure story, Tiuri needs to pass just one more challenge and his dream of becoming a full knight will come true. However, a knock on the door of the chapel, where he is supposed to spend the night in complete silence and alone, leads Tiuri to risk his knighthood and embark on a dangerous mission to deliver an important secret message to the King of Unauwen. Many would like to get their hands on this letter and the 16-year-old Tiuri must protect it at all costs.

Winner of the Schlingel Film Festival 2008 International Jury Prize for Best Film and the Junior Jury Prize | Winner of the Golden Film Award at the Dutch Film Festival, 2008 | Kristiansand ICFF Winner

Screening Times:
2/16 12:30pm, 2/18 12:30pm

The Secret of Kells
Ireland 2009 / English / 75 min / Grades 6+

Set in the 9th century, twelve-year-old Brendan is educated by his uncle, Abbot Cellach, who holds a firm grip on his nephew and expects him to follow in his footsteps. One day, Brendan meets Brother Aidan, a master illustrator who shows him the beauty of art and stimulates his creativity and fantasy. Finally, Brendan decides to break free in search of his dream: completing the valuable Book of Kells. On his journey through the forest, he has to face his biggest fears.

One of the character designers, animator and background artist- Jean Baptiste - will be flying in from Ireland for this special screening and will be present for a Q & A after the screening.

Screening Times:
2/19 7:00pm Special Screening at the Plaza Theatre

What’s On Your Plate?
USA 2009 / English / 76 min / Grades 6-9

This witty and provocative documentary by award-winning producer and director, Catherine Gund, explores the world of kids and food politics. Over the course of a year, the film follows two 11-year-old multi-racial city kids as they unravel their place in the food chain asking crucial questions about where their food comes from, how it is cultivated, how many miles it has travelled from harvest to plate, how it is prepared, who prepares it, and what is done afterwards with the packaging and leftovers.

Anticipate some sophisticated and compassionate opinions on the state of society today and how to inspire hope and active engagement in others when you really want to see something in your world change or develop.

Screening Times:
2/17 9:30am