The Marshall Artists Series is proud to present the Spring International Film Festival March 5 – 7 at the historic Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in downtown Huntington. Six films from six different countries will play during the weekend festival, each one with a unique story to tell.

Academy Award nominee Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (Belgium) shows how Burma became headline news across the globe when peaceful Buddhist monks led a massive rebellion. More than 100,000 people took to the streets protesting a cruel dictatorship that has held the country hostage for more than 40 years. Foreign news crews were banned to enter and the Internet was shut down. The Democratic Voice of Burma, a collective of 30 anonymous and underground video journalists (VJs) recorded these historic and dramatic events on handycams and smuggled the footage out of the country, where it was broadcast worldwide via satellite. Risking torture and life imprisonment, the VJs vividly document the brutal clashes with the military and undercover police – even after they themselves become targets of the authorities. Burma VJ plays like a thriller, all the more scary because it is true. This film is presented in both English and Burmese with English subtitles. Catch it Friday, March 5 at 9:45 p.m., Saturday, March 6 at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 7 at 5:30 p.m.

The Girl From Monaco (France) is a comic thriller about a brilliant and neurotic attorney who travels to Monaco to defend a famous criminal. But, instead of focusing on the case, he falls for Audrey, a beautiful she-devil, who turns him into a complete wreck. Audrey is an ambitious, sexy and ultimately deadly, weather girl on one of Monaco’s TV stations, who has no intention of reciting weather reports for much longer. Eventually the attorney turns to his zealous bodyguard to help get him out of the mess he’s created.  Presented in French with English subtitles, this film plays Friday, March 5 at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 6 at 9:45 p.m.

Depatures (Japan) follows Daigo, a talented musician. When his orchestra is abruptly disbanded, he suddenly finds himself without a source of steady income. Making the decision to move back to his small hometown, he answers a classified ad for a company called “Departures,” mistakenly assuming that he will be working for a travel agency. Upon discovering that he will actually be preparing the bodies of the recently deceased for their trip to the afterlife, Daigo accepts the position as gatekeeper between life and death and gradually gains a greater appreciation for life. His wife and friends despise his new line of work, but he takes a great amount of pride in the fact that he is helping to ensure that the dead receive a proper send-off from this state of being.  This film is presented In Japanese with English subtitles and plays Saturday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 7 at 2:30 p.m.

Lemon Tree (Israel) tells the story of a widow and empty nester Salma Zidane, who lives on the Palestinian West Bank in a house flanked by lemon trees planted by her great grandparents. Unfortunately, when the Israeli minister of defense builds a house adjacent to her own, her lemon trees are deemed a security risk. Salma hires a lawyer to prevent the powerful man from having her ancestral trees removed, but the odds are stacked against her, and to make matters worse, she begins to fall in love with her lawyer. Personal drama gives way to political controversies as Salma forms an unexpected bond with the minister’s lonely wife, and takes her protest – with the help of her young lawyer – all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court. Presented in Arabic with English subtitles, this film plays Friday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 7 at 12:30 p.m.

Flow: For the Love of Water (U.S.A.) is the one American film being shown during the festival. This powerful documentary investigates one of the most important political and environmental issues of the 21st Century – The World Water Crisis – building a case against privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question “CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?” Presented in English, this film plays Saturday, March 6 at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Lake Tahoe (Mexico) closes out he festival. Teenage Juan crashes his family’s car into a telegraph pole on the outskirts of town, and then scours the streets searching for someone to help him fix it. His quest will bring him to Don Heber, an old paranoid mechanic whose only companion is Sica, his almost human boxer dog; to Lucía, a young mother who is convinced that her real place in life is as a lead singer in a punk band, and to “The One who Knows”, a teenage mechanic obsessed with martial arts and Kung Fu philosophy. The absurd and bewildering worlds of these characters drag Juan into a one day journey in which he will come to accept what he was escaping from in the first place–an event both as natural and inexplicable as a loved one’s death. Presented in Spanish with English subtitles, this film plays Saturday, March 6 at 12:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 7 at 9:45 p.m.

Tickets may be purchased at the door.  Full-time Marshall students may receive a ticket at no charge.  Marshall faculty and staff are $5.50 each. Marshall faculty, staff and students MUST present a valid MU ID prior to admission.  Individual tickets are $7 and may be purchased at the door 15 minutes prior to each film.  Advance tickets are not necessary. For more information, call (304) 696-6656. Visit our website to view film trailers or read reviews at http://www.marshall.edu/muartser/springfestival.asp.

The Spring International Film Festival is sponsored by BB & T, Hooters, Cabell Huntington Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. WKEE, WVHU, The Herald- Dispatch, Marshall University and the College of Fine Arts.