Sean Penn directs Into the Wild, based on the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a young man who abandoned his possessions, gave his $24,000 savings to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Co-stars include Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn.
The Midnight Madness program will include George Romero’s Diary of the Dead. His zombies will never die, apparently. It has been 39 years since Romero got the ball rolling with Night of the Living Dead.
In the documentary program Real to Reel, the war in Iraq continues to be a hot topic. One film I’ve got on my must list is Body of War by Phil Donahue (Yes, it's that Phil Donahue, the former talk show host) and Ellen Spiro about a young American soldier who was wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Tomas Young, paralyzed from the chest down, is now a political activist. In Encounters At The End Of The World Werner Herzog explores Antarctica. Iron Ladies Of Liberia is about the first freely elected female head of state in Africa, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. To find out about the festival go here.