DOCtoberfest at Fernandina Little Theatre

This three-day celebration of the art of documentary film making will take place October 31-November 2 at FLT, 1014 Beech St. in downtown Fernandina Beach.

An astonishing story of obsessive love, the uplifting chronicle of a renowned critic’s love affair with the movies and life itself, a hip-shaking exploration of the tiny Alabama town that created some of the greatest pop music ever made, a look at the reviled paparazzo who helped foster today’s celebrity-media complex, and a provocative examination of the prosecution of one’s of the United States’ most notorious gangsters will all screen as part of the Fernandina Little Theatre’s second annual DOCtoberFest.

This three-day celebration of the art of documentary film making will take place October 31-November 2 at FLT, 1014 Beech St. in downtown Fernandina Beach.

Individual tickets are $7; a festival pass for admission to one showing of each of the festival’s five selected new and award-winning documentaries is $30. Advance tickets are available at The UPS Store in Fernandina Beach, located next to Publix on Sadler Road. FLT is an intimate space and filmgoers are urged to purchase tickets in advance.

For complete screening schedule, visit www.ameliaflt.org.

Crazy Love
2007, 92 minutes
“I couldn’t stop watching. A shockingly fierce and funny spell-binder that leaves your head spinning. Electrifying” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Dan Klores’ Crazy Love tells the astonishing story of the obsessive roller-coaster relationship of Burt and Linda Pugach, which shocked the nation during the summer of 1959. Burt, a 32 year-old married attorney, and Linda, a beautiful, single 20-year-old girl living in the Bronx, had a whirlwind romance, which culminated in a violent and psychologically complex set of actions that landed the pair’s saga on the cover of endless newspapers and magazines. With the cooperation of the principles, Klores examines the human psyche and the concepts of love, obsession, insanity, hope and forgiveness. Crazy Love earned the Best Documentary award at the 2007 Santa Barbara Film Festival.
Screening: 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 31; 1:30 p.m. Sunday, November 2

Life Itself
2014, 120 minutes
“A thrilling tale with unforgettable characters. Ebert’s life contained as much melodrama, tragedy and uplift as any weepie movie he reviewed. Any biographical documentary demands onscreen star quality, and this one has a hero and a heroine worth rooting for.” – Richard Corliss, Time

Acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and executive producers Martin Scorsese (The Departed) and Steven Zaillian (Moneyball) present Life Itself, a documentary film that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of world-renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert – a story that is by turns personal, funny, painful and transcendent. Based on his bestselling memoir of the same name, Life Itself explores the legacy of Ebert’s life, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism at the Chicago Sun-Times to becoming one of the most influential cultural voices in America.
Screening: 6 p.m. Saturday, November 1; 4 p.m. Sunday, November 2

Muscle Shoals
2013, 111 minutes
“Hugely entertaining – a soulful musical feast. It’s mandatory viewing for fans of the classic rock, soul and R&B of the ’60s and ’70s.” – Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

Located alongside the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, is the unlikely breeding ground for some of America’s most creative and defiant music. Under the spiritual influence of the “Singing River,” as Native Americans called it, the music of Muscle Shoals has helped create some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama’s cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. He is responsible for creating the “Muscle Shoals sound” and The Swampers, the house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio known as Muscle Shoals Sound. Gregg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals’ magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.
Screening: 11 a.m. And 8:30 p.m. Saturday, November 1

Smash His Camera
2010, 87 minutes
“Ridiculously entertaining – a deceptively complex look at the fluid nature of celebrity, glamour, privacy and art.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sued him, Marlon Brando broke his jaw and Steve McQueen gave him a look that would have killed, if looks could kill. To the celebrities he pursued, photographer Ron Galella was the beast who threatened beauty. As it turned out, he gave them a strange and lasting beauty they might never have known without him. Inherent in the story of this notorious paparazzo are the complex issues of the right to privacy, freedom of the press and the ever-growing vortex of celebrity worship. He sneaked around and invaded and bribed and held up his camera and shot till he dropped (or someone dropped him). His was the artistry of the sniper. Yet Galella found something essential in his real-life subjects, and he gave it permanence. Director Leon Gast (When We Were Kings) won the Documentary Directing Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Screening: 4 p.m. Saturday, November 1; 11:30 a.m. Sunday, November 2

Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger
2014, 107 minutes
“Berlinger is a stone-cold master at chronicling this kind of legal reckoning. This tough-minded true crime doc vibrates with the same municipal unease as Chinatown.” – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out NY

From Academy Award-nominated director Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost trilogy) Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger is a sweeping and revelatory documentary film that follows the trial of the infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, using the courtroom action as a springboard to examine accusations of multi-faceted corruption within our nation’s law enforcement and legal systems.
Screening: 1:30 p.m. Saturday, November 1; 6:30 p.m. Sunday, November 2