(USA/2007) Directed by Jonathan Demme

Following the path of former President Jimmy Carter’s recent book tour for his highly controversial Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, Academy Award®-wining director Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia, Stop Making Sense, The Silence of the Lambs) here reveals a complex man who, with the gusto of an energized youngster, criss-crosses the country to get his message across – even as that message creates a media firestorm in which his credibility, objectivity, judgment and even motives are repeatedly called into question. Intimate and unblinking, Man From Plains was described by Variety’s Ronnie Scheib as “a peerless portrait that is as complex as its subject.” With his surprising new documentary, Demme becomes the ultimate fly-on-the-wall, exploring the private and public sides of the tireless, still-influential 39^th President, whose personal sense of justice compels him to pursue, with undiminished energy, his own lifelong, spiritual vision of reconciliation and peace – regardless of where the chips may fall. Toronto and Venice Film Festivals. (120 min.) Fri. and Sat. at 7:00; Sun. at 4:00 and 7:00

“A gripping meditation. It's galvanizing to see it played out through the furious contradiction of Carter's personality.” –Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly