SYRFILMFEST'10 presents George Gittoes

Two days... Two features... One Internationally renowned artist.

March 3rd - SOUNDTRACK TO WAR

6:30pm Syracuse University

FREE ADMISSION

March 4th - MISCREANTS of TALIWOOD

7:30pm Palace Theater, Eastwood

Tickets are available at the door

$10 general admission /$8 students & seniors

Syracuse film lovers and political activists will have two chances to catch a remarkable and award winning guerilla filmmaker on March 3rd and 4th as George Gittoes speaks with students at Syracuse University, LeMoyne College and screens films for the community at The Palace Theater in Eastwood. He will be screening two films and conducting a seminar on political filmmaking. Gittoes has been described as one of Australia’s foremost figurative painters, a war artist who uses painting, drawing, photography and video. He has focused on traveling to places that have been affected greatly by human tragedy either because of war or natural disaster. Syracuse residents may recognize his documentary Soundtrack To War, which had 17 scenes featured in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. 

For more than a decade, Gittoes has been working in areas that are usually the reserve of journalists. His work catches the complexity of individual circumstance, of human frailty, empowerment and survival, against a backdrop of world issues. They are images about both 'the moment' and 'the big picture'.

He will screen Soundtrack To War at Syracuse University on Thursday, March 3rd at Shemin Auditorium, Shaffer Art Building (free) and Miscreants of Taliwood on Friday, March 4 at the Palace Theater, 2384 James St. in Eastwood (7:30 pm - tickets available at the door - $10/$8 seniors/students).

Soundtrack To War showcases spontaneous music performances by a striking cast of the battle weary - performances made without rehearsal, under the blaring Iraqi sun, with the backdrop of a destroyed city, grit and dust and the distraction of gunfire and bursting mortar shells. "This film takes us on the whole emotional roller coaster ride of the young and talented who have found themselves in the hell of war, and who want to stay alive."

"Miscreants of Taliwood finds Gittoes on location in the Taliban-dominated sections of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. Gittoes touches on the repressive nature of the Islamic fundamentalist regime, particularly its oppression of women, but this is only incidentally a political movie. More often, it's a bizarre comedy about the fringes of low-budget filmmaking. It's rare for a documentary to be called truly eye-opening, but this picture accomplishes the feat of showing us a part of the world we could never imagine." - Stephen Farber

Gittoes' visit to Syracuse is sponsored in part by Syracuse University, Transmedia Department and Le Moyne College, Film Department as well as Syracuse University's Maxwell School and South Asia Center. The event is produced and presented by SYRFILM PRESENTS, a year-round program of the Syracuse International Film Festival. To reserve a block of tickets or for more information, call the Film Festival office: 315.443.8826.