The Longbaugh Film Festival

The Longbaugh Film Festival will host the premiere of Facing Sudan. Although the schedule has not been published yet, the film will play between March 29 and April 1.

In today's Willamette Week, festival director David Walker had this to say about the festival and Facing Sudan.:

Countdown To Longbaugh 2007

Step into the sunshine of WW's film festival.

BY DAVID WALKER

In case you haven't been paying attention, it's that time of year again...time for WW's Longbaugh Film Festival, presented by Comcast. With only a month until the 2007 festival kicks into high gear (this year, Longbaugh runs March 29-April 1), now is the time for shameless self-promotion. Fortunately, there truly is an incredible selection of films to back up my hyperbolic boast that Longbaugh is the best festival in Portland.

The recent success of the Oscar-winning film Little Miss Sunshine serves as a great reminder for the need to support independent film. The family in the yellow VW, however, was one of those rare exceptions—a minor player called up from the farm leagues to play with the big boys. For every film like Sunshine that manages to sneak past the Hollywood behemoth that dominates the public line of sight, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other great indie films equally deserving of an audience. And that's what Longbaugh is all about: Showcasing films that need to be seen by an audience that wants to be challenged intellectually and emotionally.

Every year Longbaugh features an eclectic mix of features, documentaries and shorts, and the 2007 lineup is no exception. One of this year's highlights is Kenneth Glenaan's Yasmin, an evocative character study of a Pakistani-Muslim woman living in England, attempting to mask her heritage while she tries desperately to fit into British culture. But after 9/11, everything changes for Yasmin and her family, forcing them all to evaluate their roles in the world around them. Bruce Janu's documentary Facing Sudan offers an insightful into the war-ravaged African nation of Sudan, where genocide and civil war have ravaged much of the country. Janu profiles individuals that have struggled to make life better in Sudan, proving that a single person can make a difference.

http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3316/8614/