August 9
Trouble the Water - more-watch trailor

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Trouble the Water is directed and produced by Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. The film tells the story of an aspiring rap artist, Kimberly Roberts, and her streetwise husband, Scott, trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning. It’s a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes that takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen.
Trouble the Water is a transformative story about passion, resilience and heroism among the poorest residents of America's most downtrodden city.

Q&A following the screening with filmmakers Carl Deal & Tia Lessin - plus special guests Scott and Kimberly Roberts

Watch Sundance interview

The Ojai Playhouse Theatre
145 East Ojai Ave - Directions

Ticket Prices: 
Adults - $10
Seniors & Students - $7
 
 Tickets sold at the door 
on first-come, first-serve basis. 
Box Office opens at 4:00.

OjaiDocs Board Members
Alan Barker
Joan Churchill
Bill Couturie
John Langley
Sandra Ruch 

Executive Director
Maggie Cerminaro - email

 

OjaiDocs'08 is sponsored by   LANGLEY P R O D U C T I O N S

August 16
Roman Polanski:
Wanted and Desired - more  

 

Roman Polanski is certainly admired and respected as one of the world’s great film directors. But his reputation has been forever tarnished by his public conviction for having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor some 30 years ago and his subsequent flight from the United States to avoid going to jail. At least that's what everyone thinks. In her riveting reopening of this controversial and, as it turns out, very complex case, filmmaker Marina Zenovich fashions a perceptive and intelligent exploration of what really happened those many years ago and casts a very different light on Polanski’s decision as well as the workings of the legal system.

Q & A following the screening with producer Lila Yacoub and filmmaker Marina Zenovich

Watch Sundance interview

August 23
MADE IN AMERICA - more 

This is a frank, unflinching portrait of a segregated Shangri-La and the disenfranchised minority for whom the promise of the American Dream has crumbled away year-by-year, brick by brick, hope by hope and child by child. In setting out to examine the decades-long cycle of social deterioration and despair that has led to the rise of the violent African-American gang culture in Los Angeles , director Stacy Peralta has created more than just another documentary exposé on gangs. This film is a compassionate sociological and psychological exploration and history of the African-American men and women who have been all too simply dismissed as gangbangers. Narrated by Forest Whitaker.  

August 30
The Life and Work of 
Dr. Hunter S Thompson, Gonzo   more 

From Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true "free lance,” goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs. Focusing on the good doctor's heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen (nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts. Narrated by Johnny Depp.

Q & A following the screening with filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side)- more

September 6
The Garden - more  

The fourteen acre community garden at 41st and Alameda Ave. in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of it's kind in the United States. It was started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992. Since that time, the South Central Farmers have created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now bulldozers are poised to level their 14 acre oasis.  Director Scott Hamilton Kennedy captures this extraordinary story from the moment the farmers receive notices of eviction, through their two-and-a-half year battle in the courts, to the final verdict and shocking aftermath. 2008 SILVERDOCS winner, The Garden tracks the serpentine trial, backroom deals and political scandals, as well as the unexpected emergence of a political voice for the immigrant farmers who refuse to remain silent.
Watch Trailer for The Garden
 

Q & A following the screening with The Garden filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy - more