Press Release

Contact: ..........................................................................March 10 , 2005
Susan Clayton
Press Coordinator

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

3rd Chicago International Documentary Festival
Pre Festival Screening of 2004 Award Winning Film,
THIS AIN'T NO HEARTLAND, directed by Andreas Horvath




8 pm, Thursday, March 31, 2005, Block Cinema

Chicago, IL - - A special screening of THIS AIN'T NO HEARTLAND will precede the opening of the 3rd annual Chicago International Documentary Festival (CIDF), on Thursday, March 31, 2005, at Block Cinema in the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, at Northwestern University, 40 Arts Circle Drive in Evanston. The screening will begin at 8pm, followed by a discussion hosted by Block Cinema’s film curator, Will Schmenner. Tickets are $6.50 per guest and ample free parking is available.
THIS AIN'T NO HEARTLAND, with a running time of 105 minutes, was produced, written, photographed, directed and edited by Andreas Horvath. Its chilling report of wartime bloodlust in the "heartland"--winner of the Grand Prize at the 2004 Chicago International Documentary Festival--is guaranteed to divide opinion even as it hits us all right where we live. Near the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, filmmaker-photographer Horvath traveled from his home in Austria to the American Midwest to interview rural inhabitants of states from Iowa to Kansas; his questions about the war were greeted with evasiveness, obfuscation, drunkenness, and, perhaps most telling, blind faith.
To make the movie, the Austrian filmmaker and photographer Andreas Horvath visited a half-dozen Midwestern states to select the fish for his barrel. The subjects he chose are ill-informed rural and small-town Americans who have not followed the war beyond absorbing a few sound bites from television.
“HEARTLANDS” interviews are edited with snippets of a Civil War re-enactment, scary voice-overs, tabloid headlines about ''toddler terrorists'' and a parade -- all making a collage that has its grimly funny moments. Now and then the camera pauses to linger over desolate farmland, ramshackle cottages and a fading red sunset. In the filmmaker's nightmarish view, the heartland is a decaying citadel of ignorance, boorishness and xenophobia, smugly rotting away in the twilight of the American empire.
Block Cinema, a collaboration of the School of Communication, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, and the student-run Film and Projection Society, screens classic and contemporary films in the Museum's state-of-the-art Pick-Laudati Auditorium. Block Museum educational programs embrace and serve a range of audiences, including faculty, staff, and students at Northwestern University; teachers and students in regional public schools and the general public of the greater Chicago area. Contact Block Cinema via phone: 847-491-4000, fax: 847-491-2261 or email: block-museum@northwestern.edu.
Established in 2003, the CIDF is a thought-provoking 10-day film event, dedicated to the celebration and cultivation of the documentary film. The eclectic programming is designed to extend appreciation of the art of documentary film and its unique power to inspire and communicate a world of ideas and cultures. Each edition presents an array of extraordinary programs, showcasing the work of brilliant filmmakers and providing a venue for established and emerging artists of film. This year over $50,000 in unrestricted cash plus other prizes will be awarded by a jury.
Festival tickets may be purchased daily from noon - 6:00 pm. at the CIDF Main Box Office, c/o The Society for Arts (1112 Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622), or charged by phone at (773) 486-9612 and online at www.chicagodocfestival.org. Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover are accepted and all charges are subject to a nominal handling charge. For up-to-date and detailed Festival information, visit www.chicagodocfestival.org or call (773) 486-9612.
Presented by the Society for Arts, the CIDF is a non-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that depends on contributions from individuals, businesses and government to make the program possible.

#####