Opening Night Films & Gala Reception

Take a tour of Austin's acclaimed Museum of Ephemerata, soak up the madcap antics of Iowa City Optimist Club founder “Skutter,” rub intimate eyeballs with L.A.'s one and only “towel-face artist,” then scour and scrutinize the cities and jungles of Cambodia and Vietnam, as award-winning filmmaker Marc Israel takes us on this wild, and often hilarious journey in search of a mysterious international motorbike balancing contest!

Passion & Power is based on Rachel P. Maines’ ground-breaking book, The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. The film chronicles the invention of the vibrator and its impact on sexual politics by tracing it from a labor-saving device invented by doctors to cure women of “hysteria” to a household product manufactured and sold by mainstream companies like Sears Roebuck, General Electric and Hamilton Beach. This provocative, but tasteful documentary interviews historians Rachel Maines and Katharine Young; feminist pioneers Betty Dodson and Dell Williams; Texas housewife Joanne Webb and her lawyer, BeAnn Sisemore; and New York performance artist Reno.

Against the backdrop of Saharan dunes and the sandy streets of the legendary cultural crossroads of Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa, this award-winning music documentary follows songwriter Markus James and three legendary masters of traditional Malian music as they travel, live, create, and perform original music together at the source of the ancient roots of Blues music.

Companion Concert: Live Music at the Sebastopol Community Center on Friday, November 9th, at 8:00 p.m., DESERT BLUES III: Markus James and the Wassonrai, featuring Mamadou Sidibe, Bolokada Conde, and Amadou Camar, with KPFA's “Music of the World” host and didjeridu master Stephen Kent. For more information, call 707-823-1511.

This short documentary paints a portrait of Abraham Elterman, a Mexican-Jewish Oakland-based artist, who has long dealt with issues of power, individuality and connectedness.