GARBAGE DREAMS, which screens for free as part of our ITVS Community Cinema series on Saturday, January 23 at 3:00 p.m. at the downtown library, was one of the big success stories at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival (NaFF). Mai Iskander’s profile of the Zaballeen — Egypt’s “garbage people” — picked up the REEL Current Award at the festival. Presented by Al Gore, the award is given to a documentary screening at NaFF that provides extraordinary insight into a contemporary global issue. Much has happened to the film since then, including it being shortlisted for the Oscars.
Sallie Mayne, executive director at NaFF, which co-presented ITVS Community Cinema with NPT and Hands On Nashville, had this to say about the film when informing NaFF’s membership about the free screening:
GARBAGE DREAMS was the winner of the REEL Current Award presented by Al Gore at last year’s fest. Since its appearance in Nashville, great things have happened to the film. It has been shortlisted for the Oscars, played DOCUWEEKS (a big opportunity for documentaries to screen for Academy members), is currently part of a theatrical run in NYC, and the biggest thing, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave the Zaballeen — the principles of the film — one million dollars.
In announcing the Gates Foundation award, the producers of the film mentioned the Nashville Film Festival and the Al Gore award as being a big part of the film’s success. So its return to Nashville is a little like a homecoming for us. While Nashville Film Festival is not responsible for the success of GARBAGE DREAMS, we feel like a small but important part of its journey.
Plus, that a first-run documentary feature, currently shortlisted for the Oscars, would play for free as part of Community Cinema is extraordinary enough.
The film’s theatrical run at the IFC Center in New York has been such a success, that it’s been extended. So here’s a great opportunity to catch, for free no less, a film that is really making an impact; one that, as Gore mentioned in his awarding of the film, “makes a compelling case that modernization does not always equal progress.”
For more about the film, check out Jack Silverman‘s review and Jim Ridley‘s interview with Iskander at the Nashville Scene‘s Pith in the Wind blog, from back in April of 2009 before the film played NaFF.
The Main Library is located at 615 Church Street. Come early for the 2:30 reception. The film is presented locally in partnership with the Metro Beautification and Environment Commission and Sustain VU.
