VTIFF Program-Guide 2023 - Flipbook - Page 22
FILMS A TO Z
RACHEL HENDRIX
RUBY IN PARADISE
RULE OF TWO WALLS
Directed by Victor Nunez
USA | 2023 | Fiction | 119 min | English
Directed by Victor Nunez
USA | 1993 | Fiction | 114 min | English
Directed by David Gutnik
Ukraine | 2023 | Documentary | 77 min | Ukrainian w/
subtitles
Film Source: Flyover Too
Sponsored by: Andrea Rogers
Film Source: Filmmaker
Sponsored by: Kim MacQueen
SHOWTIMES
SATURDAY, OCT 28 | 3:30 PM | FH
SHOWTIMES
SUNDAY, OCT 29 | 2:45 PM | BB
A deeply affecting meditation on grief and loss, Rachel
Hendrix is the first new film in a decade from indie-film
icon Victor Nunez, who once again sets the tale in his own
vividly evoked North Florida, a cinematic landscape he has
made his own over seven features in a 44-year career.
Nunez has a knack for getting career-best performances
(see: Ed Harris, Ashley Judd and Peter Fonda), and now
you can add Lori Singer, who anchors the film with her
astonishing performance as the title character, a university
English professor dealing with the loss of her husband,
struggling to maintain personal, professional and family
relationships, and further isolated by the nightmare of
Covid. Complex, poignant, compassionate and beautifully
observed, it’s a late-career masterpiece from one of
American film’s best-kept secrets. ~SM
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film
Festival, Victor Nunez’s magical Ruby in Paradise is a
simple story of a young working-class woman fleeing a bad
situation to find herself in Nunez’ familiar cinematic realm,
North Florida, where she learns her own self-worth. But the
film is so deeply felt, intricately crafted and beautifully
performed – Ashley Judd’s star-making titular
performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award for
Best Female Lead – that it becomes much more than the
sum of its parts. Ava Duvernay, director of Selma, said the
film “became really formative for me…It’s a simple film. A
beautiful film. I’d never seen anything like this before.”
Roger Ebert cited it as one of the best films of its year,
calling it “a breathtaking movie…the writing, the acting,
the lighting, the direction…you will be looking at a movie
that knows exactly what it is about and how to achieve it.”
~SM
*** Followed by an in-person talk with Victor Nunez and
Lori Singer (see page 7 for brief bios). Nunez is the
recipient of VTIFF’s Award for Outstanding Contribution
to American Cinema, sponsored by CSE Holding Co. ***
VENUES
22
Film Source: Visit Films
Sponsored by: Bob Summers
SHOWTIMES
SATURDAY, OCT 28 | 11:45 AM | BB
For many Ukrainians, their first act of defiance was not to
leave. This documentary follows artists on the ground
during the Russian invasion who are continuing their work
even as the world crumbles around them. Urgent, visceral,
and poetic, Rule of Two Walls does not avert its eyes from
the horrible realities of life during wartime but finds
inspiration in how artists are channeling those experiences
into works of resistance, hope, and even beauty. ~TW
*** Followed by in-person Q&A with the director, recipient
of VTIFF’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to
American Cinema, sponsored by CSE Holding Co.***
FH: FILM HOUSE
BB: BLACK BOX THEATER
UVM RECITAL HALL
AT REDSTONE CAMPUS
All at Main Street Landing
Performing Arts Center, Burlington
384 South Prospect Street
Burlington
THE ESSEX RESORT & SPA
70 Essex Way
Essex
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023
