Rome Open City is a landmark of neo-realist cinema. Filmed in the aftermath of World War II on the war-ravaged streets of Italy, the film is a riveting account of life during the Occupation. Shot on location, using fragments of painstakingly spliced film negative and photographic stills, the film has inspired generations of filmmakers to experiment in the drama documentary genre. At the centre of the film is Don Pietro, a priest who risks his own safety by aiding members of the Resistance. Other characters include a communist who is on the run from the secret police, a pregnant young woman, and a junkie whose addiction endangers the lives of those around her.

Perhaps the most ground-breaking TV drama documentary ever made. Cathy Come Home was produced for the BBC's The Wednesday Play. This shattering story of a young homeless couple caught in a poverty trap coincided with the formation of Shelter, the homeless charity, and also helped to invent an entirely new kind of television drama.

Director Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett were keen to get their plays out of the studio and to harness documentary and newsreel techniques. Working with unknown actors to achieve performances of uncanny naturalism through improvisation, the resulting film, with its agit-prop narrations and fly-on-the-wall atmosphere, is as close to documentary as drama can be.

The War Game is a fictional, worst-case-scenario, docu-drama about nuclear war and its aftermath in and around a typical English city. Over forty years since its production, it remains one of the most disturbing and convincing films about the devastating effects of nuclear war. Directed by the young Peter Watkins for the BBC, its depiction of the impact of Soviet nuclear attack on Britain caused turmoil at the corporation and in government. Although it went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1966, it was denied transmission until 1985. Announcing the decision to hold back The War Game in 1965, the BBC explained that the film was too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting, expressing a particular concern for "children, the very old or the unbalanced."

Isaac Julien's sumptuous monochrome film is a lyrical and poetic consideration of the life of revered Harlem poet Langston Hughes, whom Julien invokes as a gay cultural icon. Extracts from Hughes' poetry are interwoven with the work of cultural figures from the 1920s and beyond, including black poets Essex Hemphill and Bruce Nugent, and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe - all combining to create a lyrical, multilayered narrative. Julien explores the ambiguous sexual subtexts of a period of rich artistic expression, and the enduring cultural significance of these pioneers' work. Shot by cinematographer Nina Kellgren, the film combines archival footage with newly staged set pieces, fantasy sequences, and an imagined love story. The result is a beautiful and ultimately celebratory piece about artistic expression and the nature of black gay desire.

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This film is an important example of drama documentary inspired by investigative journalism. It has led to furious debate about the right to represent recent events in dramatic form. Perhaps as much as the deaths on the battlegrounds of Iraq, it was the suicide of Dr David Kelly that brought the Blair government to task over its participation in the war. The outcry following the death of Kelly, a Ministry of Defence adviser, led to the Hutton report. Kelly's name was leaked as the source of the controversial BBC report on the 'sexing up' of the Iraqi weapons dossier. However by sticking to his narrow remit, Lord Hutton cleared the government and blamed the BBC. Peter Kosminsky sat through the inquiry and interviewed 120 of the players to create the script for this powerful dramatisation of the events leading up to Kelly's suicide. The Government Inspector is a powerful antidote to official whitewash and a provocative account of the tragic effects of the battle to control who writes history.

On 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, severe overcrowding led to the deaths of 96 men, women and children. Over 400 fans were injured, and thousands traumatised. First screened in 1996, this award-winning production recounts that day and the immediate aftermath, through the experiences of three bereaved families. It exposes the appalling insensitivities they endured and their ongoing struggle to achieve justice after the negligence of the South Yorkshire Police. Founded in investigative journalism, Hillsborough dramatises court transcripts and documents new evidence, which debunks police statements. Hillsborough overtly takes the families' point-of-view, punctuating the unfolding drama with the later statements to-camera of Hillsborough relatives (as played by actors).

Penny Woolcock's uniquely powerful film caused a furore when it was first shown. This gritty but comic drama is about life on a Leeds housing estate. Tina is a single mum who steals-to-order for her own 'shopping' business. Her drug-addict boyfriend Aaron is planning the theft of a cow so he can sell the meat, and Tina's father, Don, is the mobster in control of the local drugs trade. Tina Goes Shopping is based on real stories of survival in the marginal economy of housing-estate life. The characters are not professional actors, but residents of the local estates, who improvise each scene from a rough script based on their lives.

Through a series of interviews, dramatised scenes and archive news footage, Road To Guantanamo delivers a powerful critique of the dangerous disregard of the Geneva Conventions by the United States and its allies. The Road To Guantanamo recounts the true story of four British Muslim men who visit Afghanistan just as war is breaking out in late 2001, and end up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as prisoners of the U.S. Government. Held by the Americans initially at Kandahar Airbase in Afghanistan, they face physical abuse and mistreatment. Transferred to Camp X-Ray, the holding block at the time for detainees on arrival at Guantanamo, the men are locked in open-air cells resembling dog kennels. Both there and at Guantanamo's Camp Delta, they are interrogated by CIA, FBI and military personnel and held for nearly two years without charge before being released.

The Hamburg Cell is a devastatingly powerful work exploring the motivations of the men who carried out the attacks against the US on September 11th. The script is based on exhaustive research from declassified material, investigation files, court transcripts, personal interviews and unpublished correspondence. The film is fully-dramatised and tells the story of the three men (Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Ramzi bin al Shibh), whose role in the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon changed the course of history. From their initial meetings as students in Germany, the film traces the process of their radicalisation and eventual recruitment to al-Qaeda, which culminated in the appalling events of September 11, 2001.

Riveting docu-drama recounting the circumstances surrounding Bloody Sunday, 1972, when British soldiers shot dead 13 civilians taking part in a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland. This event was a turning-point in the history of the Irish troubles, catapulting the conflict into a civil war, driving many young men into the ranks of the IRA, and fuelling a 25-year cycle of violence. Paul Greengrass' controversial film was shot in verité style, using non-actors in many of the smaller roles. The events of the fateful day are dramatised and told through the eyes of two men - the Irish politician and civil rights leader who organized the march, and the British military officer sent to quell it.

Trevor is a seventeen year-old dosser living on a northern housing estate. He smokes 'blow', joyrides and burgles houses. He also writes poetry every day to Amie, his neighbour and muse, made pregnant by another boy. If Trevor can get a steady job at the local chicken factory, maybe he can give up his life of petty crime and convince Amie he would be a suitable father for her child. Shot guerrilla-style, and often improvised using kids from the streets of the sink estate in Mixenden, near Halifax, Twockers, is a haunting portrait of a boy burglar and a pregnant teenager.

The title is taken from TWOC - "taking without consent," - the police acronym for car theft. "I'm interested in the forgotten places, the dumping grounds, the places we have taken out of our mental picture. I want people to see images of lives that will catch them off balance." Pawel Pawlikowski

Director Gillo Pontecorvo's classic political-thriller gets more important with each passing year, providing a fascinating insight into terrorism, guerrilla warfare and state control. An urgent recounting of the war between French colonial forces and Algerian rebels, the film is a masterpiece of vivid unadulterated action and compelling procedural detail. The innovative drama-documentary style - using newsreel and non-professional actors - remains a strong influence on contemporary filmmakers. A memorable score by Pontecorvo and Ennio Morricone brings the film to emotional life.

Penny Woolcock's uniquely powerful film caused a furore when it was first shown. This gritty but comic drama is about life on a Leeds housing estate. Tina is a single mum who steals-to-order for her own 'shopping' business. Her drug-addict boyfriend Aaron is planning the theft of a cow so he can sell the meat, and Tina's father, Don, is the mobster in control of the local drugs trade. Tina Goes Shopping is based on real stories of survival in the marginal economy of housing-estate life. The characters are not professional actors, but residents of the local estates, who improvise each scene from a rough script based on their lives.

F for Fake was the last major film completed by Orson Welles. Initially released in 1974, it focuses on Elmyr de Hory recounting his career as a professional art forger, which serves as the backdrop for a fast-paced investigation into the nature of authorship and authenticity, as well as the value of art. The film incorporates Welles's companion Oja Kodar, notorious "hoax-biographer" Clifford Irving, and Orson Welles himself, in an autobiographical role. Charming and inventive, F For Fake is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the duplicity of cinema.

Sept 21-23, @ Rich Mix,
Bethnal Green Road, London E1


Crossing The Line examines the provocative new wave of films that cross the border between fact and fiction. Director Ken Loach opens the festival. There are masterclasses and debates with pivotal players such as Antonia Bird, Nick Broomfield, Ed Coulthard, Stephen Frears, Brian Hill, Peter Kosminsky, Pawel Pawlikowski and Penny Woolcock.

Plus, more screenings to beguile you include… Rome Open City, Cathy Come Home, F for Fake, Twockers and Tina Goes Shopping.

Discover more & register now… www.crossingtheline2007.co.uk

The Thin Blue Line is the re-enacted true story of the arrest and conviction of Randall Adams for the murder of a Dallas policeman in 1976.

Billed as "the first movie mystery to actually solve a murder", the film is credited with overturning the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood, a crime for which Adams was sentenced to death.

The documentary presents testimony suggesting that the police altered, fabricated, and suppressed evidence to convict the man they wanted to be guilty, in spite of evidence to the contrary. The film also mesmerizes with repeated images and staged scenes flashed throughout and eyewitness accounts of the murder devolving into contradiction and confusion.

With its use of expressionistic re-enactments, interview material and music by Philip Glass, The Thin Blue Line pioneered a new kind of non-fiction filmmaking.

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An entertaining and complex film in which documentary and fiction are intertwined challenging traditional cinematic conventions, directed by the internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

An unemployed movie fanatic pretends to a middle-class family that he is the famous director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. He subsequently finds himself charged with fraud. Based on a true incident the film takes on a further dimension as many of the characters involved play themselves, including Makhmalbaf himself and his impostor.

Dramatic reconstructions alternate with documentary footage of the actual trial in which Kiarostami is allowed to submit questions.

'No other British film made during the war, documentary or feature, achieved such a continuous or poignant truthfulness. Lindsay Anderson

Covering twenty-four hours in London during the Blitz, Fires Were Started is the story of a day in the life of the Auxiliary Fire Service. On the same day that a new recruit joins up, warning comes in that a heavy attack is expected that night.

Fires Were Started is disputably both fiction and documentary - it is a re-enactment, but of real events, using actual A.F.S servicemen and women as its leading roles. An astonishingly intimate portrait of a besieged Britain.

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A rare opportunity to see this controversial film. Viewed as an indictment against America, Punishment Park was heavily attacked on its release in 1971 with Hollywood studios refusing to distribute it.

At the height of protests over the war in Vietnam, arrested protestors and political agitators are offered the choice between long prison sentences or three days in Punishment Park detention camp.

Watkins utilises the drama-documentary technique to create a startling sense of reality that makes this film disturbing viewing. He uses real protestors and activists to play the prisoners, a number of ex-law enforcement officers to play police and extensive, inventively guided improvisation during the film.

With strong resonances to the current US policy in Guantanamo Bay, Punishment Park remains pertinent and prescient.

Winner, Tribeca Film Festival, Special Jury Award, Silverdocs, Sterling Feature Grand Jury Award, Nominated Oscar Best Documentary Feature, CFCA Award Best Documentary, OFCS Award Best Documentary.

The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future.

A growing number of evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement.Jesus Camp follows a group of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer’s "Kids on Fire Summer Camp", where kids are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in God's army and are schooled in how to take back America for Christ.

"a frightening, infuriating, yet profoundly compassionate documentary about the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical right." David Edelstein, New York Magazine

With thanks to Roco Films www.rocofilms.com

Shortlisted for the International Premiere Award at this year’s One World Media Awards, Award-winner at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Enemies of Happiness follows Malalai Joya on the campaign trail in the run-up to the first democratic parliamentary election in Afghanistan for over 30 years.

In 2003 Malalai Joya challenged the power of warlords in the country’s new government. Two years later, the 28-year-old ran in her country’s first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 years.

A survivor of repeated assassination attempts, she campaigned surrounded by armed guards. How do you introduce democracy in a country where a majority of the people are illiterate, votes are for sale, and warlords use threats and bribes to control the ballots, and many women cannot leave their children to vote?

Followed by a Q&A with producer Helle Faber and cinematographer Zillah Bowes

For more information contact The Frontline Club www.frontlineclub.com

Sebastian Moreno Mardones's documentary examines the legacy of Chilean photojournalists who risked death to record life under Pinochet's brutal regime.

During Pinochet’s long regime, a motley crew of photojournalists shot and framed Chile’s people and turmoil from many points of view.

In the streets, in the middle of bloody riots and protests, these fearless photographers learned their craft and created many of the now legendary images which helped focus world attention on the Pinochet regime’s repressive tactics.

Pinochet had the power and the guns, but these photographers had the camera – the people’s weapon. They lived dangerously and they lived to tell. This is their story.

In 1997, Jeff Buckley - considered by critics to be one of the most promising artists of his generation - drowned in mysterious circumstances.

Featuring interviews with Buckley’s friends and family and rare home-movie footage of the singer on tour, Goodbye and Hello is a unique exploration into the conflicting perceptions of this enigmatic man.

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2005 Sundance Film Festival, Winner - Best Director San Francisco Independent Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award

Once described by Kurt Cobain as "the greatest songwriter on earth", Daniel Johnston is a man whose life has been defined not only by his musical talent but by his struggle with mental illness.

Exploring the sometimes chaotic mix of genius and madness, this insightful documentary looks at the music and the man behind it in an attempt to understand how mental illness has shaped Daniel’s life and the lives of those around him.

Official Selection - Full Frame Documentary Festival - North Carolina, USA 2006, Los Angeles Film Festival - Los Angeles, USA 2006

Kabul Transit explores the soul of a city devastated by nearly three decades of war. The film follows city residents in the course of their daily lives and listens to their stories of the past and their hopes for the future.

“…an engrossing, wry and ultimately haunting vision of war-torn Kabul and its diverse residents.” Los Angeles Film Festival


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With unprecedented access behind the scenes of NATO’s war in Afghanistan, this documentary follows the commander-in-chief, General Richards, at the frontline of the'War on Terror'.

His challenge is enormous and the stakes are high. NATO must not just defeat the Taleban militarily: it must also win the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. We travel though wild and dangerous territory with Canadian and US troops as they try to implement the General’s orders to win over the Afghans.

Sometimes hilarious, occasionally tragic, this is an unexpected real-life insight into the lives of frontline soldiers reminiscent of MASH and Catch-22.

Filmed during the US led assault on Fallujah, this film comprises of unique footage of the devastation and testimonies from those inside the besieged city, along with footage of injuries and civilians under fire.

It provides a concise introduction to the historical roots of resistance to the occupying forces in the city and it conveys a real sense of what such attacks can do to a community


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Best International Documentary, Al Jazeera film festival, 2006.

"Jo Wilding, a young trainee lawyer and human rights worker in Iraq, produced some of the finest frontline reporting of the war online from Fallujah, then under siege by the US Marines.

Travelling with a small group of independent reporters... and living with families and without a flak jacket, she all but shamed the embedded reporters and those that simply reported from their rooftops in Baghdad, in her description of the atrocious American attack on an Iraqi city.

The documentary, directed by Julia Guest, presents the evidence of a crime and asks Tony Blair to take his share of the responsibility: a basic question now asked by millions of Britons." John Pilger

A fascinating and disconcerting portrait of the raw existence of Europe’s illegal immigrants.

The film follows eight young men, Kurdish, Moroccan and Romanian, as they struggle for survival on the streets of Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid.

Forced out of their native countries by political threats and extreme poverty they hope to find freedom and a way to provide for their families back home. But without visas and entirely alone, Europe’s streets do not offer these desperate men an easy ride.

Powerful, restrained, and fiercely compelling, True Stories: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib demands that the US examine its conscience as a nation.

Acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy explores the many troubling questions behind the torture of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and the damage that its aftermath has had on America’s credibility as a defender of freedoms and human rights around the world.

With thanks to More4





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Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private contractors making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

In 1965, photographer Alen MacWeeney embarked on a two-year project of photographing and recording the Travellers of Dublin and Galway.

Nearly 35 years later, he returns to Ireland to find the travellers again. A haunting, poetic portrait of the Travelling community.

With thanks to








PLUS

Fred Ward, a Romany Showman, living on a council site, struggles against a deadline as he prepares to make an appearance at a large gathering that he knows other Travellers will attend.

As we follow his progress we get a glimpse of life inside what travellers call ‘the trailer’.

PLUS

Can Tunis is a seedy suburb of Barcelona. The local authorities are determined to knock down the entire quarter, but the Gypsies who live there will not budge that easily - they demand alternative housing they can afford.

The city has already commenced demolition: half the neighbourhood is in ruins, and the occupants look on as more and more buildings are being taken down, uneasy about their homes as well as their future.

Can Tunis is a sincere and poignant portrait of a neighbourhood in utter disorder.

Oscar Winner - Best Documentary Short, Nominated for the International Documentary Association Pare Lorentz Award

Little is known about Gao Jun, not even his age. Yet this young AIDS orphan reveals his ferocious resolve to live while his extended family weights up whether or not to keep him.

This compelling film, directed by noted Hong Kong born filmmaker Ruby Yang and produced by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Thomas Lennon, tells the story of traditional Chinese obligations of family and village colliding with terror of infection, and how these forces play out in the lives of children in the remote villages of Anhui.

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Gabriel Yared has composed music for feature films, documentaries, ballets and cartoons, winning many awards internationally, including an Oscar for his score on "The English Patient".

His unusual path has taken him to different continents, landing him accidentally into film music in 1980, with "Sauve Qui Peut La Vie" by Jean-Luc Godard as his first film score.

For the first time, he has accepted to be filmed and to be followed in his collaboration with the director Anthony Minghella, for the score of "Cold Mountain".

This intimate documentary explores the inspiration behind Gabriel's passion and obsession for learning more about music. It evokes the extremely demanding principles that guide his art and life and reveals the creative and collaborative relationship between him and Minghella, with exclusive access to this delicate process.

We think of the arctic as a pristine wilderness, but scientists studying the breast milk of Inuit mothers discovered that it was loaded with chemicals migrating from the south.

This horrifying documentary exposes the devastating effect these hormone-disrupting substances have on the reproductive systems and neurological health of animals and humans across the planet, to the extent that scientists cannot find a single woman anywhere in the world who does not have chemicals such as flame retardants in her breast milk.

Filmed entirely on Baffin Island, Nunavut, in the communities of Iqaluit and Qikiqtarjuaq.

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The UK premiere of this timely and visually stunning presentation of the climate debate.

A report commissioned recently by the American government looks at the breakdown of ocean currents and the future European climate. One of the harrowing outcomes may be a minor ice age in northern Europe within the next few decades.

'A time bomb is ticking away in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean and it is imperative that we disarm it now in order to bequeath to our children an earth as viable as the one we inherited' - Stéphan Poulle.

This documentary considers the threat that comes from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, in the marine currents of the Gulf Stream.

Electronic voting machines count about 90% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering? HACKING DEMOCRACY exposes gaping holes in the security of America's electronic voting system.

Filmed over three years the film follows the investigations of Seattle grandmother Bev Harris and her team of citizen activists as they take on the electronic voting industry. It reveals incendiary evidence from the dumpsters of Texas to the ballot boxes of Ohio, exposing secrecy, votes in the trash, hackable software and election officials rigging the presidential election recount.

Finally in Florida one brave election official gave Bev and her team access to his county's voting computers, with dramatic consequences.

"Raises enough questions about the security of the ballot box to perturb partisans of any stripe... Unravels like a '24' episode." Boston Herald

"It's not shocked-shocked you feel watching this film; it's genuine SHOCK" New York Times


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Shortlisted for Oscar Nomination, Winner - OXDOX Best Feature

A David and Goliath story - a young part-time political science lecturer at Washington University decides to enter the Democratic congressional primary race for the U.S. Congress. His opponent has held the seat for 28 years and run for President twice.

The battle that ensues illustrates what happens when a new candidate with a band of passionate supporters goes head to head against the corporate establishment, name recognition and voters that don’t pay attention.

Astra Film Festival British Council Award, Nominated Joris Ivens Award IDFA

A new form of income has come to the Transylvanian village of Viscri. Women in the community are knitting socks and selling them to Western European countries through a local cooperative. But the inequality that results from this new found economy causes tensions in the community - between men and women, Romanians and outsiders and even between the different women working for the cooperative.

PLUS

The inhabitants of the Russian town of Prirechnyy have received a letter from the province of Murmansk informing them that their town no longer exists. Still, a handful of senior citizens refuse to move from the once-proud mining town. We meet four of them in this absurd little universe in northern Russia.

Aina and Fyodor have been married for 53 years. While Aina pines for attention from her husband, Fyodor is primarily preoccupied with his vegetable garden. Maria has lost her beloved husband and is bitter at her two sons. Diana is the town's diva. She still dreams of love in a town with only five male inhabitants.

Award-winner at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Enemies of Happiness centers on Malalai Joya, one of Afghanistan’s most famous and infamous women. In 2003 she challenged the power of warlords in the country’s new government. Two years later, the 28-year-old ran in her country’s first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 years. A survivor of repeated assassination attempts, she campaigned surrounded by armed guards. How do you introduce democracy in a country where a majority of the people are illiterate, votes are for sale, and warlords use threats and bribes to control the ballots, and many women cannot leave their children to vote? As the film eloquently illustrates, it takes more than Western soldiers and diplomats.

Joya is a controversial voice for a nation ruined by war, still ruled by fear, but desperate for a change for the better.

In English, Farsi and Pasthu with English subtitles

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A Lesson of Belarusian follows the story of Franek Viacorka studying at an elite school to promote the Belarusian language. The school was banned in 2003, a victim of the anti – democratic rule of President Alexander Lukashenka.

Franek and his classmates are both passionate and thoughtful, expressing their critical attitude to the government by issuing an underground newspaper, recording music with activist lyrics, and organizing an opposition concert. Despite the imprisonment of Franek’s father and the constant threat of their own arrest, they are undeterred.

In the March 2006 presidential election, they support the democratic opposition candidate in a mass demonstration in Minsk’s main square. While the candidate is powerless to combat Lukashenka’s corruption and use of riot police, Franek and his classmates realize that fearlessness is a victory in itself.

In Polish and Belarusian with English subtitles

As part of the HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 11TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
March 21 – 30 2007, London - 22 inspiring, powerful documentary and feature films from 20 countries - Download the programme at www.hrw.org/iff. For a free festival programme email londonff@hrw.org or call the Hotline 020 8979 8628.

Ismailia International Festival For Documentary & Short Films, Best Long Documentary Award, Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier, Prix Ulysse - Best Documentary

Intensely engaging documentary following a band of rebellious teenage girls living on the streets of Cairo. Most of them are fleeing homes of extreme poverty and abuse. The troubles they encounter on the streets, such as rape, drug addiction, prostitution, pregnancy and motherhood are not downplayed, but confronted with courage and vibrant camaraderie. “An agonizing and uplifting depiction of street survival at its most daunting.” Hollywood Reporter

These Girls will be screened after Flowers Don't Grow Here at 8.15pm

At 7pm

Special Mention in the OMCT Award at FIFDH 2006, and the Big Issue Social Care Award 2006 at Document 4: International Human Rights Film Festival

Much of Eastern Europe has been devastated by the rapid transition from communism to capitalism. Fifteen years since independence from the USSR, the Ukraine - Europe's second largest country - is struggling to regain economic and social stability. One little-known consequence is the estimated 1,000,000 children now living homeless on Ukraine's streets. Filmed undercover over four months and told through the eyes of a gang of Kiev’s street kids, Flowers Don’t Grow Here offers an intimate and uncompromising portrayal of young people paying the ultimate price for political reform.

A sharp wake up call to the inconceivable changes facing the world as oil becomes ever more scarce. Directors Gelpke and McCormack show how our exploitation of oil has led not only to fabulous lifestyles our ancestors could never have imagined, but also ongoing political and economic instability worldwide. Oil production is now peaking, but the decline is likely to be very steep and very drastic, with no large-scale alternative fuel source in sight.

“For a century we didn’t spend a nanosecond actually really taxing ourselves as to could we actually come up with a replacement for oil and natural gas,” admits Matt Simmons, oil baron and adviser to George Bush, one of many brutally frank experts interviewed. Beautifully photographed with a haunting score, A Crude Awakening grabs you by the throat in its first minutes and never lets you go. “A terrific work of investigative journalism-as-film that will scare the living crap out of you.” - Salon.com



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Most people who’ve dreamt of a limping cockroach would laugh it off and forget about it. Not the Neapolitans - there could be money in it. Maria and Angela run a local lottery office inherited from their parents. They are well known for their ability to attach numbers to anything, with the help of a revered book called The Grimace. Local murders, police raids, bizarre events, all have their number potential as Naples’ citizens try to win their way out of poverty.

Via the life stories of these fortune seekers, director Anna Bucchetti weaves a charming portrait of modern day Naples through a nostalgic black and white lens. An oft-bereaved grandmother tells about her life fencing stolen goods to feed her nine children, while an exuberant transvestite, who turns his home into a bingo hall every day, recounts his recent wedding ceremony, designed to shock the locals.

“Her subjects are richly human and imaginative, even when achingly poor, and their tragedies are naturally interwoven with their betting strategies.” - Variety


Screening will also feature:
Motodrome, Dir. Jörg Wagner, Germany 9 min, 2006
Motorbike riders perform dangerous stunts while riding at breakneck speed in a wooden barrel for an appreciative crowd. This thrilling homage stylishly captures the atmosphere of this dying fairground attraction.

We will also be screening the winner of the Sheffield DocFest Mini Green Docs contest.
For more info or to submit your own 2-minute Green Doc visit myspace.com/sheffdocfest Thanks to Carbon Planet, Docfest is the World’s first CO2 -free Documentary Festival.

DocHouse joins together with The Frontline Club - London's leading centre for discussion on the issues shaping the news industry - to present a series of screenings from independent filmmakers on the real impact of the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Shot in the sprawling refugee camps of the North West Frontier province in Pakistan and Kabul, Afghanistan, View From A Grain of Sand tells the story of three Afghan women, each dramatically affected by the different regimes of the last twenty-five years. A doctor, a teacher and a social activist give us their unique version of how they hope to see their country change, their convictions and the tremendous losses they had to deal with.

This screening will be followed by a Q+A with director Meena Nanji

My Country My Country has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary

My Country, My Country is an unforgettable journey into the heart of war-ravaged Iraq in the months leading up to the January 2005 elections. Director Laura Poitras' main focus is Dr Riyadh, a Sunni candidate, benevolent GP and an outspoken critic of the occupation, he is equally passionate about the need to establish democracy in Iraq.

Interwoven with the doctor's personal struggle is the state of the country at large. We're taken behind the scenes where journalists rarely venture, whether riding with Kurds, recording US Military briefings or just sitting in Sunni living rooms as shells fall in the streets. My Country My Country profiles the tragic contradictions of the military occupation and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East.

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Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance, shortlisted for Oscar nomination

The film takes an unflinching look at the training and dehumanisation of US soldiers, and how life in a war zone affects them physically and mentally. The film overrides familiar images of war with one effortless stroke. We see illness, amputation and injury, depression and post-traumatic stress disorders. Far from being greeted with open arms, America's treatment of veterans is found wanting. The Ground Truth makes it impossible to dismiss its characters simply as war statistics.

This screening will be followed by a Q+A with THE GROUND TRUTH director Patricia Foulkrod

Awards include - "Banff World Television Award Winner" category - "Feature Length Documentaries", Hot docs' official selection.

From the symbolic handover of power to the Iraqi people to the under publicized bloody election day to the tearful reunion with families and wounded colleagues, we follow a group of soldiers as they transform from eager young men into hardened, cynical war veterans who will never be the same again. Film-makers, Yuri Maldavsky and Tim Grucza, spent several months over the course of the year in southern Baghdad with the White platoon of the 1/7 cavalry division.

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Iraqi filmmaker Layth Abdulamir examines the common roots of his often mistreated and misunderstood country. His camera captures the cultural, social and historical heritage of men and women who wove the fabric of the nation... Kurds, Arabs, Turkomen, Shiites, Sunnites and Christians…. a close-up of a particular "identity" that prospered, suffered and finally ended when the Coalition's tanks arrived into what was once the Garden of Eden.

Followed by Q&A with Iraq, Song of the Missing Men director Layth Abdulamir

East London Muslim girl Shahanara is changing from pink hotpants into a sari to meet her husband at the airport. She's only met him once before, when she was married in a union arranged by her Bangladeshi family. Shahanara only agreed to the marriage to try and heal old wounds with her father, who had banished her from her family for her Western ways. Meanwhile her devout Muslim sister Hushnara is being groomed for her own arranged marriage, something that at 19 she doesn't feel at all ready for.

"Director Simon Chambers' long standing relationship with the Begum family makes for a lively and intimate film, which gives an utterly absorbing insight into a little known community, and is a welcome antidote to current representations of Muslims by politicians and in the media". Sheffield Documentary Festival

This special preview screening will be followed by a Q+A with filmmaker Simon Chambers and participants from the film

Awards Include: IDFA, Amsterdam, Amnesty International's Doen Award, Zagreb Dox International Documentary Film Festival, Grand Prix, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, FIPRESCI Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Seeds of War Award, DocAviv - Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival, Israel, Special Mention in category Best International Film, One World Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague, Best Director Award

This award-winning, achingly beautiful documentary reveals how the Chechen War has affected children in both Russia and in Chechnya. Russian children are filmed at Kronstadt near St. Petersburg, where they are being trained as child soldiers. The imagined enemy is the Chechen, the foe whose utter defeat turns a soldier into a hero of the fatherland. Chechen children are filmed in Ingushetia, in a family which consists of 75 orphans who have been salvaged from the ruins of a devastated Grozny. All of their parents were killed by the Russian ‘soldiers’ – possibly the very children in uniform being trained at Kronstadt.

Followed by a ScreenTalk with Pirjo Honkasalo, director of The 3 Rooms of Melancholia.

at 8pm

The idealism and optimism of young people in Finland in the 1960s and ‘70s created a youth culture where a better world seemed just around the corner and socialism seemed like a real alternative. Songs played a central role in this revolution, and hundreds of radical singing groups sprung up. The songs told stories of battles and solidarity, of Chile and Vietnam. Forty years on the middle-aged former revolutionaries reform their groups and return to their combat songs. Brimming with music, archive footage and contemporary interviews, Revolution captures the spirit of an age, and asks the poignant question, what happens to the idealism of youth?

Introduced by Kirsi Tykkyläinen of the Finnish Film Foundation and featuring a performance from Kiti Neuvonen (Revolution).

Part of the Finnish Film Week at the Barbican Centre: www.barbican.org.uk/film

Best Canadian Documentary prize, Hot Docs, International Documentary Festival, Toronto.

Martyr Street, Hebron, is one of the most hazardous and fractious streets in the West Bank. It is the only site where Jewish settlers live as a minority in the heart of a city in the occupied territories. Schoolgirls Najilah al-Khatib and Neria Arnon live a few metres away from each other on Martyr Street but they have never met. It is ground zero for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Najilah is Palestinian and Neria, the daughter of Jewish settlers. When veteran Director Saywell first met the girls, she was filming her Oscar-nominated film A Child’s Century of War and Martyr Street was a bustling Palestinian market. 5 years later, she returns to follow up on the children to find the market abandoned and the street almost deserted. While the Jewish settlers who have re-occupied homes in the ancient Jewish quarter remain, the Palestinians have fled to escape the constant harassment by settlers and the Israeli Defence Force. Martyr Street is a painful portrait of the children of both religions and the adults who teach them to hate, and a powerful exploration of the roots of violence on a street named for its dead. Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles.

PLUS AT 6:30

Qendresa is thirteen years old and back in Pristina, Kosovo. In 1999 she and her family escaped the war in the Balkans, heading for Sweden where they lived for over four years before being deported. Widmark and Johansson follow Qendresa and her family during their first year back in Kosovo as they struggle to re-adjust to life in a country they no longer know. Both Qendresa and her siblings have forgotten most of the Albanian language, their parents are unemployed the whole family lives together in one room. For Qendresa and her siblings, Pristinam is as foreign as to any Swede.

WITH

Punam
Director: Lucian Muntean, Natasa Stank vic, Serbia, 2005, 25 mins

Nine-year-old Punam Tamang lives in Bhaktapur in Nepal. Punam lost her mother when she was five years old and since that time she has been the family caretaker, providing for her younger brother Krishna and her younger sister Rabina. The children see little of their father who works double shifts in a rice factory in order pay their school fees.

 

For the last 27 years, the Kirghiz tribe lived a quasi-Iron Age existence in one of the remotest places on earth. Now, having migrated an amazing five times, they live in Turkey, a tribe divided. Those over 30 pine for their nomadic history and the rugged mountains of their homeland; the young have a modern education and live in a world of pop music and internet cafés. A feature-length mix of the ethnographic and authored documentary forms, the collaboration between distinctive director Ben Hopkins and the Kirghiz tribe makes this film a unique record of a unique people.

Followed by Q&A with Director Ben Hopkins and André Singer
André Singer was an anthropologist specializing in Iran and Afghanistan before joining the Disappearing World team as researcher, then director and eventually as the Series Editor. He has been involved in several films in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, notably ‘The Dervishes of Kurdistan’; ‘The Kirghiz of Afghanistan’; ‘Bloody Partition’; and as director, ‘Afghan Exodus’, ‘The Lost Tribes’, ‘Man Without a Horse’ and ‘Khyber’. André currently runs the independent company West Park Pictures and has embarked on a series with Granada, re-visiting the Disappearing World series.

 

Brian Hill is internationally acclaimed for his unconventional, hybrid documentaries. Working with distinguished poet Simon Armitage, his recent films combine song, music and poetry in their depiction of contemporary society. His award-winning films include Drinking For England (1998), the BAFTA winning Falling Apart (2002), Feltham Sings (2002) and most recently Songbirds (2005) pictured above. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to examine the evolution of his style from the relatively straight observational approach of Saturday Night (1996), to the radical and often controversial form of his recent work.

For more information contact DocHouse www.dochouse.org Email: info@dochouse.org Tel: 020 8237 1220
Tickets £9.50 full, £7.50 concessions

Twenty years ago, Britain's miners embarked on a strike over pit closures. Whereas previous coal strikes had been over in a matter of weeks, this time both Union and Government dug in for a lengthy battle. In the end, the biggest losers were the ordinary miners.

During the strike, the South Bank Show commissioned Loach to make a film about the music and poetry arising from it. However, when Loach included footage of police brutality, ITV refused to show it and the programme was pulled for being too political. The film went on to be broadcast on Channel 4 in 1985, followed by a 'balancing' programme showing an alternative view of the miners' strike. As Loach remarked at the time: 'I've spent as much time defending my films as I have making them.' The film remains an engrossing immersion into the plight of the miners, with the rawness of the poetry reflecting the miners' year-long ordeal, as they struggled to provide food for their families.

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Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award-winning Harlan County U.S.A unflinchingly documents a gruelling coal miners’ strike in a small Kentucky town. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners’ sometimes violent struggles with strike-breakers, local police and company thugs. Featuring a haunting soundtrack - with legendary country and bluegrass artists Hazel Dickens, Merle Travis, Sarah Gunning, and Florence Reece - the film is a heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

A fascinating and moving work. Its strength lies chiefly in its ability to illuminate the peculiar frightfulness and valour of coal-mining, and made it clear just why coal-miners can never be rightly treated as a less than a very special case. - The New York Times

Also at Sheffield don't miss…
Off the Box: Alternative Distribution Models
Session Produced by DocHouse's Elizabeth Wood with Emily James
Friday 03 November 2006 02:00 PM (Showroom 3)

 

Speakers: Barbara Truyen, Franny Armstrong, Debra Zimmerman, Tim Sparke, Robert Greenwald
Moderator: Alan Hayling

For almost a decade experts have been predicting that DVD, e-cinema and the Internet will replace Broadcast TV for documentary distribution. So how true is it? This session explores the viability of alternative platforms currently available for independent documentary distribution. Some brave souls are going out with their camera and a credit card and making good films. The question is can they achieve profitable returns via DVD sales, new cinema platforms and Internet distribution to make dependence on TV commissioning a thing of the past? 'Off the Box' will speak live to Robert Greenwald in LA who has bypassed TV and distributors to become the model for DIY- DVD distribution. Joining the panel will be distributors and Indie filmmakers to discuss the current success and future possibilities of these distribution platforms.

For more information and full Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival programme visit www.sheffdocfest.com

Roger Graef is best known for his pioneering work exposing closed institutions from ministries to courts and prisons. His groundbreaking films include the Thames Valley Police - which helped change the way the police deal with rape victims and In Search of Law and Order - an exploration of radical new ways to change juvenile rehabilitation. More recently, he has exec-produced many award winning documentaries. Roger is a Grierson Trustee and in 2004 he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding achievement.

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to meet one of the Britain’s most distinguished documentary makers, in conversation with Richard Klein - Commissioning Editor, Documentaries at the BBC.

In 1979, the Sandinstas won a hugely population revolution in Nicaragua, putting an end to decades of corrupt US-backed Somoza dictatorship. They based their reformist ideology on that of the English Co-operative Movement, but it was to prove too ‘radical’ for the Reagan administration. In this film, John Pilger describes the achievements of the Sandinistas and their ‘threat of a good example’.

with

The exposure of another terrible human tragedy to which governments turned a blind eye, East Timor - a tiny country off the northern tip of Australia - is ruled by bloodshed and fear. More than 200,000 people were wiped out by neighbouring Indonesia. Since East Timor's liberation in 1999, this film's contribution has been recognised worldwide.

Awards for this film include Gold Award in the 'Political/International Issues category' Worldfest-Houston, 1994; Silver Plaque for 'Social/Political Documentary (National) category' at the Chicago International Film Festival, 1994; Audience Award for Best Documentary at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam, 1994; Certificate of Merit in the category of 'Documentary - Disputed Lands', Golden Gate Awards, San Francisco, 1995.

Roger James, former controller of factual at Central television will introduce the screening and talk about his long working relationship with John Pilger.

War Games is an intimate portrait of a community, recently devastated by war, struggling to put itself back together again and to stage an Olympic Games for thousands of children from the surrounding villages. The film follows the organisers as they struggle with broken goalposts, hungry players, and the constant threat of bombing by the Sudan government, all in scorching daily temperatures upwards of 50 degrees Celsius.

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For over 18 years a civil war in Northern Uganda has dragged on almost completely unnoticed by the rest of the world. The rebels of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) are waging a bloody guerilla campaign. They abduct children and conscript them as soldiers, forcing them to kill their own people. The film Lost Children documents the lives of four children, from 8 to 14 years old, who successfully escaped the LRA. They return home to be branded as killers.

The films will be followed by a discussion hosted by International Alert, an international peacebuilding NGO

 

Kim Longinotto is one of the internationally pre-eminent documentary filmmakers working today. Kim studied at the National Film and Television School where she made Theatre Girls, her graduation film. Since then she has made films around the world exploring universal women's issues by focusing on their intimate relationships. Her now extensive repertoire includes the internationally acclaimed Divorce Iranian Style, The Day I will Never Forget, and her latest film Sisters in Law which won a Grierson Award in 2005

Kim Longinotto will be in conversation with Lizzie Francke, former Artistic Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and film critic for publications including Sight & Sound, Premiere, The Observer and The Guardian.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Executive Producer Andrew Blackwell. An unflinching portrait of daily life in the slums of Medellin, Columbia. More than 30,000 people have been killed over the last ten years in Colombia's bloody civil conflict, in which left-wing guerrillas fight against the government and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. Recently, as guerrillas and paramilitaries sought to control the barrios, urban gangs were brought into the conflict . And so a brutal turf war developed with adjacent barrios fighting against each other. This stunning documentary has achieved intimate access to three young gang members, whose lives are defined by violence. LA SIERRA captures unbelievable scenes - from shoot-outs between rival gangs to intimate moments of love, pain, joy and death.

This special screening will take place at the Frontline Club: 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ. Entrance is £5, and RSVPs should be made to events@frontlineclub.com.

Through eyewitness accounts and gripping footage, acclaimed director Eric Kabera takes a deeply moving look at the 1994 Rwandan genocide, its survivors, and the memories created in the victims' honour.

with

April 2004 is the month of mourning in the new Rwandan calendar. While the country is commemorating the 10th anniversary of the genocide, children play games. Filmmaker Sarah Vanagt spent the Easter holiday in a 'children’s republic', governed by genocide orphans and refugee children in the war-torn border zone between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Not only have these children experienced war atrocities and extreme poverty at a young age, their childhood remains burdened by the current political instability of the region. Begin, Began, Begun approaches these themes apolitically, through the imagination of children and their play.

The films will be followed by a discussion hosted by International Alert, an international peacebuilding NGO

 

 

Penny Woolcock has been making films for the BBC and Channel 4 for nearly two decades. Her work, including Tina Goes Shopping, The Wet House and The Death of Klinghoffer, crosses the line between documentary and fiction, challenging accepted definitions of the genre. Alongside Grammy and BAFTA nominations she has won numerous awards including the Prix Italia and Special Jury Prize at Brussels

Penny Woolcock will be in conversation with Holly Aylett, co-editor of Vertigo Magazine and Director of the Independent Film Parliament.

DocHouse is proud to present a special event featuring the first films from the new INDEPENDENT FILM AND TELEVISION COLLEGE in Baghdad, presented by Maysoon Pachachi co-founder of the school.

For decades no television or film production free of Iraqi government control was possible. The INDEPENDENT FILM & TELEVISION COLLEGE was set up in 2004 to enable young Iraqi’s to put their stories on the screen for the first time. The films were made in dangerous and uncertain circumstances between the end of 2004 and October 2005. Each opens a window onto the life of ordinary Iraqis at this extraordinary time.

Baghdad Days directed by Hiba Bassem, 35 mins Winner of the silver award at the Al Jazeera International Film Festival in Doha. Hiba Bassem, a young woman from Kirkuk, returns to Baghdad after the war, to finish her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. The film is a diary of her year.

Hiwar directed by Kifaya Saleh, 12 mins For years a group of Iraqi artists and writers had wanted to establish a cultural centre in Baghdad. After 8 years of war with Iran, the Gulf War of 1991 and the ongoing sanctions, it was clear that there was no point in waiting for peace.

Omar Is My Friend directed by Mounaf Shaker, 15 mins A student at Baghdad University works as a taxi driver to support his wife and 4 daughters. As he negotiates his clapped out taxi around checkpoints, tanks and traffic jams, he talks about work, having daughters in a male-dominated society, and his personal aspirations for the future of Iraq.

The evening will begin with a UK premiere screening of:

The story of one Iraqi family’s struggle to cope after the killing of their eldest son by American Troops. The film is a moving portrait of one family's struggle to survive in the volatile world of post-war Iraq. More than this, the film demonstrates the dangerous ripples created in ordinary Iraqi citizens by the arbitrary violence resulting from US policing of this devastated city.

Blood of My Brother has just finished a very successful run at Tribeca Film Festival For more info visit www.storytellerinc.com

Since his BAFTA winning début film Children of Chernobyl in 1991, Clive Gordon has directed a string of award winning documentaries including Moscow Central, The Betrayed, Men In Pink and The Lost Boys. At times controversial, his films often address devastating political issues from a highly authored and emotional perspective. His first feature film Cargo premiered at Sundance in January.

 

 

Sean McAllister left school at 16 and spent the next decade on the dole, he worked summers in a pea factory. Here he made his first film The Season which gained him a place at the National Film and Television School. McAllister has gone on to win numerous awards for his documentaries including the Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2005 for his latest film Liberace of Baghdad. His films include Working for the Enemy, The Minders and Hull's Angels.

TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE
BOOK NOW
Tickets £9.50, £7.50 concessions available from the ICA

We are delighted to announce that Angus Macqueen will be joining us for the first masterclass in this series. This highly respected filmmaker has recently been appointed head of documentaries at Channel4 Television. His early work concentrated on the collapse of the Soviet Union and its European Empire, from The Hand of Stalin, to The Death of Yugoslavia. More recently he has directed the observational film Dancing for Dollars, Cocaine and the Grierson Award winning Last Peasants.
ANGUS MACQUEEN HAS NOW SOLD OUT

For more info contact DocHouse
Tel: (0)20 8237 1220 Email: info@dochouse.org www.dochouse.org
Tickets £9.50, £7.50 concessions available from the cinemas

DocHouse are delighted to be joined after the screening by Riete Oord, Executive Producer of His Big White Self. Riete has been producing films with Nick Broomfield for more than 15 years, including: Tracking Down Maggie; Aileen Wournos; Too White for Me and the BAFTA nominated The Leader, the Driver and the Driver's Wife.

The aftermath of The Leader, The Driver and The Driver’s Wife was deadly serious for all concerned. The final days of Apartheid led to the nominal defeat of the white right as the ANC came to power. Eugene Terreblanche, facing certain incarceration and national ridicule, had no doubt bid his followers to implement the numerous death and bomb threats that Broomfield was subjected to in the months that followed the film’s release in 1991.

"I never thought in my worst nightmares that 14 years later I'd feel compelled to track down His Big White Self." Of course, Broomfield did just that.

This new and unmissable film further explores Terreblanche's absurd yet insidious character, exposing his regime's stark and sobering impact that lingers to this day. Broomfield revisits the familiar and haunted faces of those brought down and broken by democracy's rise in South Africa, finally confronting the newly released and unrepentant Terreblanche in a manner not only tense but also hilarious and unforgettable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tempest - as performed by a cast of hard-bitten cons,
many lifers, inside for violent crimes.

Awards for Shakespeare Behind Bars include Special Jury Prize for Feature Documentary, Independent Film Festival Boston, Best Feature Documentary Award, Bethel Film Festival, Best of Show Award, Bendfilm Festival and a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance

This powerful documentary follows the dramatic production group at The Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, Kentucky. Every year a group of inmates present a Shakespearean play - this year ‘The Tempest’ with its penetrating focus on forgiveness and redemption. Filled with fascinating revelations, Shakespeare Behind Bars makes us question the labels we apply to these convicted men. As we watch them grapple with the parallels between their characters and personal experiences, we begin to appreciate and respect them as thinking, feeling individuals.

Please note this film replaces 37 Uses For A Dead Sheep advertised in the ICA catalogue

The invasion of Iraq was the most closely documented war ever fought. Lasting only 800 hours, it produced 20,000 hours of video, but those images were tightly controlled, producing a monolithic view of combat sanitised and controlled by the Pentagon.

Enemy Image traces the ways U.S. television has covered war, starting with Vietnam in the 1960s and shows how the military has devised ever-improving means of ensuring the American public never again has the real face of combat beamed directly into their living rooms. Comparing footage of Vietnam, including rarely-seen material shot in North Vietnam, to coverage of Iraq and using extensive interviews with veteran war correspondents and news anchors, Mark Daniels demonstrates how television that once revealed the truth is now increasingly used to hide it.

At 37 Letizia, together with her 3 daughters, left a husband whom she had been married to since the age of 16 and became a journalist. She picked up a camera when she found that she could better sell her articles if they were accompanied by photographs. After years of racing on her vespa to the crime scenes with her camera, Letizia found she had accumulated an archive of death and decay of Palermo and its citizens. But simply documenting what was happening wasn’t enough for her and so she became and anti-Mafia activist and environmental politician and dedicated her life to the battle for justice. BATTAGLIA paints a uniquely intimate portrait of this warrior of a woman. A story of passion, pain and the struggle for freedom.

Filmmaker will be present for a Q+A after the screening

with

Short listed for a Grierson Award for Best New Comer, 2005

Shortlisted for a Rory Peck Award for Best Documentary Feature, 2005.

What drives a young Westerner to volunteer as a peace activist in the Middle East? Caiomhe Butterly is one of a growing number of volunteers who risk their own safety to intervene in the long-running and bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine. This thought-provoking documentary follows Caiomhe's day-to-day work and issues affecting life in the Middle East. Despite numerous threats, personal attacks and even a deportation, Butterly remains resilient in her commitment to promote peace within communities at risk.

"An astonishing piece of work, a wonderful film…quite unlike anything I've seen." John Pilger

The Filmmaker will be present for a Q& A after the screening

A rare portrait of a cross-cultural marriage in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar. Filmmaker Vandekeybus gained unprecedented access to the insular world of Qatari society. She followed American-born Linda, her Qatari husband Ali Al Saigel and their seven children for three years from 2001. Unlike many foreign wives, Linda has adopted the Shiite Muslim traditions of her husband. Swathed in black she looks like any other Qatari woman. Within the four walls of their comfortable home in the capital Doha, however, Western and Middle Eastern ideals, morals and attitudes collide. Vandekeybus’ camera homes-in on the family as they candidly discuss issues such as arranged marriages, second wives, religion and Qatari society in general. After 20 years together, their relationship has hit a wall. Linda ponders whether she should return to the U.S. for a few months. Will the unusual marriage survive?

with

Pakistan was partitioned from India in 1947. Since then, these two nuclear states have been in a virtual state of conflict. Now for the first time in fifteen years the Indian cricket team tours Pakistan and two filmmakers from opposite sides of the border go along to capture a taste of how it feels to be the enemy.

A story of love, revolution, and betrayal, No More Tears Sister explores the price of truth in times of war. Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the film beautifully renders the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Wartime mother, university professor, wife, activist, and symbol of hope, Rajani was assassinated at the young age of thirty-five in 1989.
Fifteen years after Rajani’s death, her older sister Nirmala, a former Tamil militant and political prisoner, journeys back to Sri Lanka. She has decided to break her long silence about Rajani’s passionate life and her brutal slaying. Joining her are Rajani’s husband, sisters, and grown daughters, as well as fellow activists forced underground.

Superbly filmed, using rare archival footage and intimate correspondence, the story of Rajani and her family delves into rarely explored themes—revolutionary women and their dangerous pursuit of justice.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker and participants and it is also part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival www.hrw.org/iff and is co-presented with Docspace, www.docspace.org.uk

To join our weekly email-out, send an email to info@dochouse.org with 'subscribe' in the subject.

Winner of the Best Australian Feature Documentary Award 2005 (Critics Circle)
This award-winning film looks at the contemporary urban expression that is unsanctioned street art. If you know Melbourne, you might recognise the tags and styles from the street, but as Melbourne prepares to host the 2006 Commonwealth Games, public dialogue heats up.
Director Nicholas Hansen assigns his camera to the city’s abandoned corners and most high-profile spaces, showcasing the poetic brilliance of its young graffiti artists, from the raw stencil symbolism of Psalm, to KAB101’s futuristic fantasy wildstyles. True Live’s Ryan Ritchie provides a pulsating soundtrack to this thrilling film experience.

Part of The London Australian Film Festival, Thu 2 - Sun 12 March at The Barbican.
Australian directors have carved a reputation as some of the world's finest documentary makers and the selection presented during the Festival all make compelling viewing.
http://www.barbican.org.uk/australianfilm/whats-on/documentaries

Critics' Choice, Time Out
Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream, but serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life.
With brutal honesty, The End of Suburbia explores the American way of life and its prospects as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply.

Followed at 8.45pm

with

Is something rotten at the heart of the American electoral process?
Invisible Coup reveals how Republican insiders have taken control of America's transition to electronic voting and uncovers serious flaws in the technology. If you thought 'hanging chads' were a cause for concern, wait until you learn about invisible computer code.

 

Oscar Nominated for Best Documentary 2006
ENRON examines one of the greatest corporate disasters in history, in which top executives from one of the largest companies in America walked away with over a billion dollars, leaving investors and employees with nothing. This fascinating and revealing doc features insider accounts and startling corporate audio and video tapes that reveal colossal personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy.
The film studies how Enron’s defrauding of investors, employees and the entire state of California was not so much the product of a few bad apples as the ultimate result of a deregulated free-market system. Far from checking that the system worked, accountants Arthur Anderson, banks like JP Morgan and Chase, countless lawyers and brokers all took their share and looked the other way. The result is many shattered lives and a new governor of California.

'A tight, fascinating chronicle of arrogance and greed.' A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
' Entertaining and enraging!' Boston Globe
' A HORROR FILM FOR ADULTS' LA Times

Part of the Sheffield International Documentary Festival on Tour

Winner - C.I.C.A.E. Prize Berlin Film Festival 2005
On a circular path from Odessa in the Ukraine via NewYork, Israel and back to Odessa, Michale Boganim explores the meaning of ‘Home’, capturing the lives of three groups of Russian Jews. All dream of an idealised vision of Odessa, on its deserted streets elderly residents reminisce on happier times before WW2, while exiled Jews in New York attempt to recreate the vibrancy of their former home. Even those who have reached ‘the promised land’ find their situation wanting. In Odessa they were Jews while in Israel they are labelled Russians.

With the use of music and stunning cinematography Michale Boganim paints a thoughtful portrait, exploring with sensitivity, universal issues of exile and displacement.

In co-operation with Docspace, the UK partner to CinemaNet Europe

Barbara Kopple is the two time Academy Award winning director of Harlan County USA and American Dream.
Joan Churchill is an award-winning cinematographer and a co-director of many Broomfield films including Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer and Biggie & Tupac.
This film tells the story of five intrepid female reporters who take substantial personal risks as they cover the world’s hot spots. These women provide a unique insight into life inside Iraq that doesn’t make it to our televisions. Their stories will take the audience on an important journey into the often intense, personal, dramatic and compelling stories that too often go unnoticed. Images and words have the power to shape public conscience and Bearing Witness examines the personal and professional lives of five women journalists as they attempt to put a human face on otherwise impersonal tragedies.

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WMD focuses on the role played by the Pentagon propaganda machine and the media in the Iraq War. Media critic, Danny Schechter’s hard-hitting dissection of information warfare asks if the media was complicit in the selling of the Iraq War and suggests the government’s ‘media-management’ is now out of control? The film investigates the embed program and ‘infiltrates’ Fox News. It comes on the heels of the New York Times admitting that its pre-war coverage was deeply flawed and differed dramatically from reporting seen around the world. WMD provides shocking revelations into a US population, ill-served and under-informed by an unquestioning news media in crisis.

This DVD can be purchased on-line at www.wmdthefilm.com

Bearing Witness will be screened at 8.20pm following WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception

Newark, New Jersey is a tough town. A third of its residents live in poverty and the murder rate is twice that of the Bronx, only 15 miles away. In 2002, Newark is gearing up to elect the next mayor. Candidate Cory Booker is a 32-year-old African-American Rhodes Scholar and Yale law grad. As a city councillor, he moved into a low-income housing project to be closer to his constituents and fought the city for better jobs and education. He’s up against a fierce opponent, four-term incumbent Mayor Sharpe James. Raised in poor Newark, he has 32 years of experience and charisma to spare.

An extraordinary, multi award-winning film which captures the ‘no-holds barred’ battle to be the next mayor of New Jersey. It’s a David and Goliath story that sheds light on issues of poverty, race and democracy in America.

The Fall of Fujimori is political thriller exploring the volatile events that defined Fujimori’s decade-long reign as the president of Peru. Since fleeing Peru in disgrace four years ago, Alberto Fujimori has remained virtually silent about the sensational end of his controversial presidency. Until now. Fujimori agreed to the first in-depth interview since his exile last January. The result is one of the most intimate and shocking looks at a modern dictator ever captured on film. Director Ellen Perry interweaves personal, up-close interviews with the exiled leader along with never-before-seen, exclusive footage from his regime.

with

Newark, New Jersey is a tough town. A third of its residents live in poverty and the murder rate is twice that of the Bronx, only 15 miles away. In 2002, Newark is gearing up to elect the next mayor. Candidate Cory Booker is a 32-year-old African-American Rhodes Scholar and Yale law grad. He’s up against a fierce opponent, four-term incumbent Mayor Sharpe James. Raised in poor Newark, he has 32 years of experience and charisma to spare. An extraordinary, multi award-winning film which captures the ‘no-holds barred’ battle to be the next mayor of New Jersey. It’s a David and Goliath story that sheds light on issues of poverty, race and democracy in America.

Roco Films International
www.rocofilms.com

LAND MINES - a love story is a compelling anti-war film set in Afghanistan, a country that has become synonymous with conflict. It is also a story of romance and a celebration of life, hope and love. The film tells the story of Habiba and Shah. Shah, a former Mujaheddin soldier and land mine victim, works as a cobbler on the pavements of the ruined city of Kabul. One day, he noticed a pretty Tajik girl who had only one leg, and he began to court her. Amidst the chaos and violence, and despite all the obstacles of tradition and religion, Shah and Habiba were able to marry.

Dennis O’Rourke’s latest film is part observational and part essay – driven by a polemic that is both angry and subtle – LAND MINES - a love story is a damning portrayal of the human costs of war.

LAND MINES - a love story tells the story of Habiba and Shah. Shah, a former Mujaheddin soldier and land mine victim, works as a cobbler on the pavements of the ruined city of Kabul. One day, he noticed a pretty Tajik girl who had only one leg, and he began to court her. Amidst the chaos and violence, and despite all the obstacles of tradition and religion, Shah and Habiba were able to marry.

Dennis O’Rourke’s latest film is part observational and part essay – driven by a polemic that is both angry and subtle – LAND MINES - a love story is a damning portrayal of the human costs of war.

This raw and heartbreaking documentary follows a group of orphans and runaways just about existing in Moscow's Leningradsky station, whose miserable days consist of the grim horrors of prostitution, begging, glue-sniffing and dealing with the direct threats of police brutality and AIDS. Oscar-nominated and bearing unflinching witness to the terrible reality of child-homelessness, this is a must-see insight into one of our most desperate urban conditions.

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With eighty percent of Baltimore's African American boys dropping out of high school and half of them ending up in jail, Mavis Jackson runs a programme to send twenty'at risk' twelve-year-olds to a school in Kenya for their 7th and 8th grade education. This fascinating documentary highlights the profound academic and cultural failings of the North American system and the changes and achievements of the youngsters, as we follow the group through the culture shock of swapping their inner-city streets for the Baraka School's strict disciplinary regime in the bush country of East Africa.
A huge hit at the Edinburgh film festival earlier this year.

This raw and heartbreaking documentary follows a group of orphans and runaways just about existing in Moscow's Leningradsky station, whose miserable days consist of the grim horrors of prostitution, begging, glue-sniffing and dealing with the direct threats of police brutality and AIDS. Oscar-nominated and bearing unflinching witness to the terrible reality of child-homelessness, this is a must-see insight into one of our most desperate urban conditions.

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The films shows the life of Gigi and Monica. They are in love and live with a gang of other street children in the district surrounding t