*SOLD OUT, Join the waiting list at the VTIFF Box Office, 1:45pm, one hour before screening.*
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, Victor Nuñez’s magical Ruby in Paradise is a simple story of a young working-class woman fleeing a bad situation to find herself in Nuñez’s familiar cinematic realm, North Florida, where she learns her own self-worth. But the film is so deeply felt, intricately crafted and beautifully performed – Ashley Judd’s star-making titular performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead – that it becomes much more than the sum of its parts. Ava Duvernay, director of Selma, said the film “became really formative for me…It’s a simple film. A beautiful film. I’d never seen anything like this before.” Roger Ebert cited it as one of the best films of its year, calling it “a breathtaking movie…the writing, the acting, the lighting, the direction…you will be looking at a movie that knows exactly what it is about and how to achieve it.” ~SM
*** Followed by in-person Q&A with the director, Victor Nuñez, recipient of VTIFF’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to American Cinema, sponsored by CSE Holding Co., with additional support by the UVM Film & Television Studies Program***