Slamdance Film Festival 2010

Synopsis: Set in the heights of the Bolivian Andes, Mamachas del Ring is the story of Carmen Rosa the Champion, an indigenous woman who struggles to make it on her own in the male-dominated world of Bolivian professional wrestling. Up until Carmen arrived, Bolivia had never seen a cholita take her petticoats and bowler hat into the ring, and the crowds couldn't get enough. But the pressures of daily living and gendered responsibilities begin to eat away at Carmen, until one day her husband issues her a firm ultimatum: wrestling or your family. Director Bio: Betty M Park is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker who spends her days working in TV as a producer and editor, and her nights making independent film. Mamachas del Ring is her first feature-length film. War Story: It’s been four years since Betty first discovered the Mamachas, three years since she strapped a camera to her back and went down to shoot, two years since she stopped questioning what a Korean American from Brooklyn was doing making a film about Bolivian women wrestlers, and one year since she concluded that this documentary would not have been possible without equal parts insanity and blind faith on everyone’s part.

Synopsis: William S. Burroughs: A Man Within is a feature-length independent documentary by director Yony Leyser, in collaboration with BulletProof Film, Inc. The film paints a tender portrait of the Beat author and American icon, whose works at once savaged conservative ideals, spawned vibrant countercultural movements, and reconfigured 20th century literary culture. It features never-before-seen archival footage, as well as exclusive interviews with Burroughs’ colleagues and confidants including John Waters, Patti Smith, John Giorno, Sonic Youth, Gus Van Sant, Genesis P-Orridge, Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, Jello Biafra and many more. Burroughs was one of the first writers to cross the boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950s. His novel Naked Lunch reconfigured 20th century popular culture. He has influenced generations of artists. However, his friends were left wondering, did William ever find happiness? This intimate documentary reveals the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time. Director Bio: Yony Leyser is a twenty-five-year-old filmmaker, photographer and writer from Chicago, IL. He moved to Lawrence, Kansas, and began his passionate film on Burroughs after being kicked out of film school. His previous work has documented a utopian transgender commune in Tennessee, an anarchist village in Copenhagen, and Europe's largest squat. War Story: In Miami I stayed with a Repo woman. Her friend, a muscular pornography cameraman I hired in a pinch to shoot my interview with Iggy Pop robbed me — he pulled over his car and made me give him all my money before he would get my equipment from the trunk of his fancy SUV. I stayed with snakemaster Dean Ripa after I interviewed him in North Carolina. There were deadly snakes everywhere. It was election night 2008. Dean said the world was doomed no matter what. In bed, fearing an escaped snake, I heard screaming outside. Obama had won. ~ Yony Leyser