May 15, 2006 – The sixth Forum Film Festival continues with the second of three films being premiered this year, "The Boys of Barak" to be shown Wednesday night, May 17.
"The Boys of Barak" is a documentary about a group of boys living in a poverty-stricken area of Baltimore. They spend two years at a rural boarding school in Kenya that has the goal of educating and changing the attitudes of at-risk youth from Baltimore. They are told, in the summer before their third year, that they cannot return due to terrorist attacks and the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. The film follows the boys through a third year, where the effects of their Kenyan experience come to light.
Film critic Robert Ebert says, "Here is a movie that makes you want to do something. Cry, or write a check, or howl with rage."
The final film to be shown on May 24 is "Go for Zucker," a comedic German box office smash hit about a dysfunctional Jewish family. The movie stars Henry Hubchen and Udo Samuel as estranged brothers brought together by their mothers death and a requirement that they reconcile before receiving their inheritance. The producers of "Run Lola Run" and "Goodbye Lenin!" worked on this film.
Variety Magazine called it "politically incorrect but good-natured entertainment."
All films start at 7 p.m. at Market Square East on St. Thomas.
Forum Film Festival tickets are $15 and are available at the following locations: Reichhold Center for the Performing Arts (call 693-1559), Modern Music in Nisky Center, Parrot Fish Records and Dockside Books at Havensight Mall, Interiors by MSI at Fort Mylner and Home Again in Red Hook.