Today marks the start of the 2009 Connecticut Film Festival season with over 30 films scheduled to be screened at the Bethel Film Festival.

Here's the lineup for tonight's kickoff:

Shorts Program II, 11:00am
"Huang Shan" Director: Andrew Geller 4 min. 2008 Student USA - Music video for 'Huang Shan' by Cary Judd. Man climbs a mountain while being followed by his elusive true love. "Little Miss Dewie: A Duckumentary" Director: mira Tweti 30 min. 2008 - A workaholic animal welfare journalist. An abandoned pet duckling. A city apartment. A quest to find the perfect duck home. Little Miss Dewie: A Duckumentary a funny and true inter-species love story that also raises important animal welfare issues. "Free Lunch" Director: Rick Curnutt 35 min. 2008 Student Film USA - Walter Tanner Jr. is done with handouts, he's done with his privileged past, and he's done with having to answer to people. Realizing the value of hard work, Walter sets off on the road to the American dream...in a lunch truck. "High Hopes" Director: Steve Hofstetter 3 min Animation USA - Comedian Steve Hofstetter's stand-up about America's hypocrisy about drugs and terrorism, framed by a dark animation. "The Beneficiary" Director: Theodore Melfi 18 min USA - Three lives are tragically altered when an ordinary event ignites a chain reaction of paranoia and murder.

"Brave New West" Friday 12:45pm: Documentary - CTFF 2008 Award For "Best Editing" Director: Doug Hawes-Davis & Drury Gunn Carr, 80 mins USA "Old West" met "New West" when writer, publisher, artist, and activist Jim Stiles began publishing the politically-progressive "Canyon Country Zephyr", an independent paper "hopelessly clinging to the past" in the heart of conservative Mormon Utah.

"Meat The Truth" Friday 2:00pm Documentary Director: Gertjan Zwanikken & Karen Soeters, 73 mins Netherlands 'Meat the Truth' is a climate change film that pays attention to one of the most important causes of global warming: factory farming, a cause which was ignored in Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

"Beyond The Call" Friday 3:50pm Documentary - CTFF 2008 Award For "Best Director" and " Best Film With A Social Message" Director: Adrian Belic In a true-life Indiana Jones meets Mother Teresa adventure, three middle-aged men, former soldiers and modern-day knights, travel the world delivering life-saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians and doctors in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places on Earth: the front lines of war.

"Begging Naked" Friday 5:25pm Documentary - Director: Karen Gehres 70 min - USA Against an unforgiving backdrop of homelessness and madness, Begging Naked follows 7-years of Elise Hill who had left her suburban New Jersey home in 1976 at the age of 15. Her home and artists studio are a building's ventilation shaft. Elsie's life spirals out of control through a life drug addiction and mental illness, stripping and prostitution. Eventually she leaves the self-expression of her painting, sculpting and jewelry making for a homeless life in Central Park.

"ELITE SQUAD" (TROPA DE ELITE) Friday 7:00pm Feature - CTFF 2008 Audience Award For "Best International Film" Director: José Padilha, 118 mins - An astonishing look at the notorious, volatile slums on the edge of the Rio de Janeiro, and the drug trafficking militias who control them. Brazil's elite BOPE force (State Police Battalion) combats drug trafficking, but keeping order has its price, and it can be difficult to distinguish right from wrong, and justice from revenge. Based on a true story.

"FUGUE" Friday 8:30pm Premiere After Party Following Director's Q&A At Pizzeria Lauretano - Director: Grant Rosenmeyer 52 min, Student Film 2008 - When high school boys doubt the faithfulness of their girlfriends, they call upon eccentric teen and aspiring private detective Hal Gordon. At the film's opening, Hal is hired to follow Adelle Julian. However, the assignment goes awry when she catches him in the act. After reading a report in the local newspaper, Hal begins investigating the mysterious death of Kerri Flanagan - a girl with a notorious reputation - who bears a striking resemblance to Adelle. What ensues is an investigation that leads the already fragile Hal down a twisting road of obsession, danger, and desperation... For A Few Marbles More (Voor een Paar Knikkers Meer) Director: Jelmar Hufen, 11 mins, Netherlands 2008 Four ten-year-olds are kicked out of their favorite playground by two aggressive drunkards. When they realize their parents are not going to help them, there's only one solution. They have to find a way to get the toughest boy in the neighborhood to help them.

Friday 9:15pm "The Other Side Of The Tracks" CTFF 2008 Award For "Best Cinematography" and "Best Soundtrack"
Director: A.D. Calvo - 105 minutes, Ten years after a tragic train accident killed his girlfriend, Josh (Brendan Fehr, ROSWELL, FINAL DESTINATION) finds himself haunted by disturbing visions from some -where between the world of the living and the dead-haunting memories that keep him from moving on. His buddy, Rusty (Chad Lindberg, SUPER-NATURAL, THE FAST & THE FURIOUS), back in town for their high school reunion, tries to wake Josh from his painful past, but a mysterious young waitress (Tania Raymonde, LOST) offers a seductive alternative.