Synopsis & Film Details

2011 Fresno Film Festival

Sunday, April 3rd @ 1PM

Dreaming American
Director: Lee Percy • USA • 27 minutes

Based on a true story, the drama Dreaming American follows a young Albanian immigrant fighting to keep his dream of making it in America alive. As he battles the harsh realities of New York City and discovers its seamy side, his success comes within reach despite an uncaring system.

Cold Sore
Director: Matt Bird • Australia • 17 minutes

In the dramatic mystery Cold Sore, a woman named Jenna haunts bars and nightclubs, plagued by grief and loneliness, yearning to meet Mr. Right. She meets Guy, an enigmatic stranger who’s perhaps too good to be true. After a passionate goodnight kiss, Jenna wakes up the next day to discover a lesion has appeared on her lip. A doctor’s initial diagnosis suggests a simple cold sore, but the lesion turns out to have a much more sinister cause.

Defying Deletion: The Fight Over
Iraq’s Nineveh Plains
Director: André N. Anton • USA/Iraq • 21 minutes

The documentary Defying Deletion: The Fight Over Iraq’s Nineveh Plains tells the story of the Assyrian Christians living in the historic Nineveh Plains. The Assyrians have experienced tremendous persecution and suffering since the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003. More than 70 of their churches have been bombed, hundreds of them have been killed, and thousands of them have been forced to flee Iraq and take refuge in unwelcoming neighboring countries. They are experiencing one of the world’s largest, untold humanitarian crises. The film sheds light on the systematic ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide, and religious-based targeting the Assyrians have endured hundreds of years before Iraq’s inception.

El Cortejo (The Cortége)
Director: Marina Seresesky • Spain • 14 minutes

The dramatic comedy El Cortejo (The Cortége) tells the story of Capi, the oldest gravedigger in the cemetery. Used to working amidst the suffering of others and the jokes of his colleagues, there is only one person capable of taking Capi out of his routine. Every month for the last couple of years, he has waited for Marta to take flowers to the grave of her husband. She is Capi’s last hope. In Spanish, with English subtitles.