UMass Boston Film Series

Oscar Nominated Short Documentary 2011 www.postergirlthemovie.com

Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady reveal the extraordinary and complex story of Detroit they discovered in the years spent making their new film "Detropia," in the U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance 2012.

In rural Siberia, Russian and American model scouts scour remote villages in search of teenage girls to satisfy the Japanese market's unquenchable thirst. For poor, pretty farm girls, the promise of work abroad signifies the rare chance for a new life. David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's provocative documentary explores this dark, seldom-seen segment of the modeling industry through two primary subjects. Ashley used to be a model in the United States. Now she's a professional scout who is conflicted over the fact that her livelihood depends on recruiting the youngest girls possible based on promises that aren't always realized. Nadya is a 13-year-old country girl from Novosibirsk, Siberia, who embodies the particular kind of youthful innocence so highly sought-after in Japan. Hoping to help support her tight-knit family, she travels to Tokyo, but once there, she finds the frustrating reality of how jobs are booked is much different from what she expected. Strikingly composed, Girl Model follows its subjects through a frustrating maze of casting sessions, clashes and contradictions. Redmon and Sabin juxtapose video diaries that Ashley recorded from her years as a model with her current life as a scout, revealing the precariousness and complexities of the business from both sides of the coin. As Nadya and the other young girls like her find themselves lost in a harrowing hall of mirrors, will they learn to navigate the modeling world, or wind up returning home in debt to their agencies?

Synopsis: In central China, a Master coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. The top students face dramatic choices as they graduate -- should they fight for the collective good or for themselves? A metaphor for the choices everyone in the New China faces now. 千錘百煉 : "To be tried and tested a thousand times over." https://www.facebook.com/ChinaHeavyweight Sundance 2012 World Documentary Official Competition

Three-time felon. One-time Tony award winner. Lemon Andersen is a pioneering poet whose words speak for a generation. But Lemon has landed back in the 'hood, living in the projects with thirteen family members and desperate for a way out. So he turns to the only thing he has left, his pen and his past. In this intricately crafted documentary, LEMON follows one man's harrowing journey to bring his life story to the stage while battling the demons from his past. Featuring a surprise turn by Spike Lee and music by Hip-hop phenoms Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Aloe Blacc. www.lemonthemovie.com Follow us on Twitter: @lemonthemovie Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LEMON-the-Movie/249656125076895 A film by: Laura Brownson & Beth Levison

Visit the website http://www.worldbeforeher.com Like the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/worldbeforeher Follow on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/worldbeforeher Moving between two extremes - the intimate verite drama of the Miss India pageant's rigorous beauty "bootcamp" and the intense regime of a militant Hindu fundamentalist camp for young girls. The World Before Her delivers a provocative portrait of India and its current cultural conflicts during a key transitional era in the country's modern history. Directed by Nisha Pahuja.

On February 28, 2013, director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) will take part in a Q&A at the University of Massachusetts Boston following a free screening of his film Stevie, which is about a troubled young boy he had been an 'Advocate Big Brother' to ten years earlier. The screening is part of the UMass Boston Film Series. To learn more, visit: http://www.umb.edu/filmseries/films/stevie

The UMass Boston Film Series represents a powerful and varied mix of independent film gems, audience favorites, and works that have shaped the cinema landscape. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, moderated by curator and lecturer Chico Colvard. For the full schedule of the films being screened in Spring 2013, visit http://www.umb.edu/filmseries.