Connecticut Film Festival 2008

Sophie White sees a beautiful white sofa in a shop window, which promises to bring her all the happiness she craves. As she tries to enjoy her new furniture, with hilariously disastrous results, she realizes nothing ever lives up to expectations.

BUBBLE-RAMA is a story about a kleptomaniac artist looking for inspiration in luxury lifestyles, who ends up receiving guidance from a foul-mouthed Japanese doll. Her story rides the edge between art and commerce in this close-to-the-bone independent comedy.

In director John Barker’s debut feature, up-and-coming comedians Kags, Joey and Dave make clear that life in the ‘new’ Johannesburg is not just about hardship and townships. It’s also about finding humor in relationships, hanging out with friends and celebrating life on a raucous roadtrip to Oppi Koppi—South Africa’s largest music festival. Shot in a cinema vérité style and using the street food ‘bunny chow’ as a metaphor for contemporary Johannesburg’s mix of races, cultures and attitudes, Barker’s edgy, urban comedy asks us to envision a nation through the eyes of its future, rather than the tragedy of its past. This film is a selection from The Global Lens 2008 Film Series . www.globalfilm.org

Have you ever had to use a bathroom stall that didn't lock? This hilarious short shows just how uncomfortable that can be.

Rebelling against the overbearing pressure to become a ballerina by her high society mother, Priscilla Dubois has transformed herself into the gothic "Candy Corpse", a wildly popular, exotic dancer who performs in the heart of San Francisco’s Broadway district. A serendipitous flash of inspiration brings a big change of heart and direction, taking Candy nearly full circle, as she presents her new style.

This excellent short documentary introduces us to a young woman who has overcome a troubled youth to become a successful adult--and an inspiration to other troubled youths.

CARTONEROS follows the paper recycling process in Buenos Aires from the trash pickers who collect paper informally through middlemen in warehouses, to executives in large corporate mills. The process exploded into a multimillion dollar industry after Argentina's economic collapse put millions out of work. The film is both a record of an economic and social crisis and an invitation to audiences to rethink the value of trash.

Through six generations, the Obert farm has been passed down through a lineage of sons, but that lineage ended with Charlie. Charlie's son Milo did the unthinkable: he sold it and moved away. Milo's sisters Margaret and Janet raised families just down the road from the rotting barn, learning simply to turn away as they passed by. CHARLIE OBERT'S BARN is a story of renewal. A building gets reused, feelings are patched up, and voices long silenced begin to whisper.