Film Festival Looks at U.S. Social Problems

Catch a more nuanced view of the United States as 35MM shows six contemporary documentaries at the “Show Us” festival, which starts Saturday.

The six films touch on varying issues such as the environmental impact of corn, the cost of war and mass immigration.

“These issues are relevant to Russians because they are global issues,” said Alexei Laifurov, programming director at 35MM.

Rebecca Kamiza’s “Which Way Home” follows the lives and aspirations of Mexican migrants as young as 9 years old along their perilous journeys over the border to the United States.

“How to Hold a Flag,” by directors Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, looks at four Iraq war veterans trying to readapt to everyday life back at home.

Among the festival’s guests will be one of the stars of that film, Stuart Wilf. Wilf was the soldier in an iconic image that appeared in Time magazine after the fall of Baghdad showing him playing a guitar in a palace of one of the sons of ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

Double prime-time Emmy-award nominee James Chressanthis will be in attendance for the showing of “No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos,” which tells the story of two of Hollywood’s most famous cinematographers, who went from shooting the Soviet invasion in 1956 to filming the likes of Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces.” He will host a Q&A session.