On Sunday evening, Atheist Film Festival director/founder David Fitzgerald and I were interviewed by DJ Jessie G and Wild Bill on The Mutiny Rodeo, a show on Mutiny Radio here in San Francisco. We talk about the festival, David’s book Nailed: Ten Christian Myths that Show Jesus Never Existed, what atheism means to each of us, where this movement is headed, and some other stuff along similar lines (including listening to the audio from Death by Puppets’ “Don’t Be a Dick” video).
It was a fun conversation, and if you’re interested you can listen to the podcast of the show (our segment starts about 6 minutes in)!
Speaking of Death by Puppets, their short “Charlatans” was one of the finalists for the AFF short film competition! If you’ll be at the festival, you can catch it during the shorts program at 2:30 PM in the main theater or 8:00 PM in the small theater. We’ll be presenting the award for best short following the 2:30 screening.
The 4th Annual Atheist Film Festival is this Saturday, August 11th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. I do hope to see some of you there! For information on films and how to purchase tickets, visit sfatheistfilmfestival.org
Read on for blurbs from our Main Theater lineup:
The Invention of Lying / dir. Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson / 2009 / 100 min
Followed by Q&A with writer/director Matthew Robinson
Could you have religion in a world without lies? That’s the question in this wonderfully comic and thought-provoking fable about an alternate reality in which lying – even the concept of a lie – doesn’t exist. Ricky Gervais is brilliant as the down-on-his-luck loser who literally changes his world when he discovers the ability to tell lies. Though he quickly garners fame, fortune and the girl of his dreams, things get out of control fast when his marvelous lies get taken as the gospel truth…
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In God We Teach / dir. Vic Losick / 2011 / 62 min
Matthew LaClair was just an ordinary high school student in Kearny, NJ until he went to his principal to accuse his history teacher of blatantly proselytizing for Jesus in the classroom. The teacher denied everything. And then Matthew did something that blew the case apart. This film documents the real-life battle over separation of church and state in an average American high school, and the courage and resourcefulness of a young atheist student.
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Short Film Program / 80 min
Followed by the presentation of the first annual AFF Filmmakers’ Award for short film
A program of thought-provoking and hilarious heathen-tastic shorts from around the world. See the Short Films page for details.
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Waiting for Armageddon / dir. David Heilbroner & Kate Davis / 2009 / 74 min
Followed by Q&A with directors David Heilbroner and Kate Davis
There are evangelicals in the United States “Waiting for Armageddon,” eagerly awaiting the apocalyptic fulfillment of bible prophecy that predicts the Rapture and the final battle between good and evil. Filmmakers David Heilbroner and Kate Davis show how this theology shapes U.S.- Middle East relations and how mixing American foreign policy with Christian eschatology puts us all at risk of igniting a global holy war.
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No Dinosaurs in Heaven / dir. Greta Schiller / 2011 / 70 min
Followed by Q&A with director Greta Schiller
Join the National Center for Science Education’s Dr. Eugenie Scott on a raft trip down the Grand Canyon to see how creationist explanations for its formation fail, and to examine the tactics religious fundamentalists use to hijack science education, threatening the separation of church and state and dangerously undermining scientific literacy – such as creationists who earn science education degrees simply in order to advocate their anti-scientific beliefs in the classroom. This film exposes the fallacies in the “debate,” manufactured by anti-science forces, that creationism is a valid scientific alternative to evolution.
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The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today / dir. Jay Rosenstein / 2010 / 57 min
Followed by Q&A with director Jay Rosenstein
A Peabody and Emmy Award-winning documentary that tells the compelling personal story of the late Vashti McCollum, and how her fight to protect her ten year-old son led to their family become pariahs in their own community and spurred a bitter legal battle that culminated in one of the most important and landmark First Amendment cases in U.S. Supreme Court history – the case that established the separation of church and state in public schools. A gripping story of a little-known case that continues to have enormous ramifications today in matters ranging from displays of the Ten Commandments in government buildings to student-led prayers at public school graduation ceremonies.
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Day Night Day Night / dir. Julia Loktev / 2006 / 96 min
Inspired in part by a true story, it is a deeply unsettling, intensely personal and completely unpredictable thriller that follows a 19-year-old girl preparing to become a suicide bomber in Times Square. An award-winning and critically acclaimed film featuring such realism and such an astonishing, riveting performance by the lead, it feels like a documentary. One of the most unforgettable and quietly harrowing films you will ever see.
