GHOST BIRD, SPLINTERS and More Come to Florida's Lyric Theatre, 4/16

The Lyric Theatre has announced its upcoming screenings, including GHOST BIRD tomorrow, April 16, at 2pm, 4pm & 7pm, and SPLINTERS on April 17 at 2pm, 4pm, & 7pm.

Ghost Bird is a non-fiction documentary about a small town in Arkansas, an extinct giant woodpecker and everybody looking for the Holy Grail of birding - the Ivory-billed woodpecker. Following numerous sightings and its widely announced rediscovery in 2005, the world's best birders have been unable to locate even one "Lord God Bird" after over three years of intensive searching. Ghost Bird examines the meaning of hope, faith and the limits of certainty in the quest to resurrect this lost species...unless, like the Holy Grail itself, the Ivory-bill remains forever out of reach.

Splinters is the first feature length documentary film about the evolution of indigenous surfing in the developing nation of Papua New Guinea.

In the 1980s an intrepid Australian pilot left behind a surfboard in the seaside village of Vanimo. Twenty years later, surfing is not only a pillar of village life but a means to prestige. With no access to economic or educational advancement, let alone running water and power, village life is hermetic. A spot on the Papua New Guinea national surfing team is the way to see the wider world; the only way.

Filmed in cinema verité style, the film profiles several villagers in their quest to become professional surfers. Set at the crossroads of civilization in a land where cannibalism proceeded into the 20th century, the story is as much a tale of budding sportsmen chasing their dreams as it is the Old World fusing with the Modern World.

Angelus and Ezekiel are two friends destined for greatness but with distinct approaches to their goal of getting on the national surfing team. Self-assured and boisterous, Angelus is confident he is the best surfer in the nation while the talented yet gun shy Ezekiel lets his surfing do the talking. Fueled by glossy images in surfing magazines left behind by the odd-traveling Western surfer, the two young men are united in their fantasy of being paid wave riders. The female surfing prowess in Papua New Guinea is consolidated in one family. Lesley and Susan are sisters etching a new path in a male-dominated sport and a community where they are secondclass citizens by simple virtue of their womanhood.

The upcoming inaugural Papua New Guinea National Surfing Titles is the ultimate ground for this surfing ensemble to prove its talent and will send the winner to Australia to train with world-class surfing athletes. This is the incipient step necessary to transform a humble villager to the first ever Papua New Guinean professional surfer. But, as with any scarce resource, fierce competition ensues and a rival village surf club will employ any means necessary to win.

Wrapped in a compelling visual aesthetic, Splinters is at once a visceral dramatic narrative about a village grappling with its identity and young heroes using their surfboards to carry them to a better life.

The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy will also play April 21 and 22 at 2pm, 5:15pm, & 7:45pm, in Swedish with English subtitles.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, at 2:00 pm, is about a journalist aided on his search for a woman who has been missing -- or dead -- for forty years by a young female hacker.

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, at 5:15 pm, is about computer hacker Lisbeth and journalist Mikael investigating a sex-trafficking ring. Lisbeth is accused of three murders, causing her to go on the run while Mikael works to clear her name.

Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, at 7:45 pm, is about Lisbeth recovering in a hospital and awaiting trial for three murders, when she is released. Mikael must prove her innocence, but Lisbeth must be willing to share the details of her sordid experiences with the court.

After taking a bullet to the head, Salander is under close supervision in a hospital and is set to face trial for attempted murder on her eventual release. With the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his researchers at Millennium magazine, Salander must prove her innocence. In doing this she plays against powerful enemies and her own past.

For tickets visit www.lyrictheatre.com or call the box office 772-286-7827.