As a child, Michael Stock was sexually abused – by his own father. 25 years later he is still looking for inner peace. In conversations with his family and friends and his own reflections, he paints an ever clearer, if contradictory picture of what happened and of the consequences for each of the family members. Old family films seem to show a happy family – excerpts from Michael’s first... (more)
“Water Drums, an ancestral encounter” is a documentary film that shows the strength of the African roots in the Venezuelan musical manifestations. The history of the Afro descendents Venezuelans is set up in the film when the central character finds the ‘water drums’ , a peculiar and stunning musical expression of the region of Barlovento.The aquatic chimes from the water drums will... (more)
The life of an ordinary man begins along with the 20th century in Pouri, Mount Pelion and meets up with Greece’s contemporary history at key points. The “hidden” Epic of 1941 and the battle at Point 731 against the Italians’ spring attack led by Mussolini himself. Survivors’ tales and documents from Kaslas’ unique archive. The documentary chronicles the subsequent participation of... (more)
Seven middle class housewives live in Tehran. What are they really talking about? Iranian food or Iranian life? (more)
Antonio Tenorio is a B1: he’s totally blind, and he carries on his judo kimono the red circle that symbolizes it. The documentary follows this professional judo player, one of the few in the world to compete both in Paralympic and regular championships, as he prepares himself to fight for a fourth Paralympic gold medal, in Beijing. Filmed in Brazil, France and China, “B1” narrates an... (more)
Bhutto unfolds like a Greek tragedy with unsolved murders, political intrigue, family feuds, hijackings, poisonings — you name it. Her story had all the elements from triumph to tragedy. There is a reason why the Bhuttos are called the Kennedys of Pakistan. For the trailer visit the film's website at: http://www.bhuttothefilm.com/trailer.html More on the story at:... (more)
In 2008, China hosted the Beijing Olympics and Taiwan held a presidential election. The sensitive issue of national identity conflict between the two sides of the strait was again instigated. Taiwanese documentary filmmaker Chung Chuan living in China for the last eight years, utilizes film art to connect Taiwanese at home, in Beijing, and in New York. What Taiwanese show as fervent love for... (more)
Africa is full of nature’s colors. A colorful experience! The social, political and economical problems of the continent, however, are unsaturated. Neither black nor white, but endless gray. “Africa Light” – as white local citizens call Namibia. The name suggests romance, the beauty of nature and promises a life without any problems in a country where the difference between rich and... (more)
Three Canadian men; Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin were detained and tortured for months and years in Syria and, in Ahmad El Maati's case, Egypt. Upon their release, they return to Canada and try to find answers to why they were detained in the first place. An inquiry was struck into their cases in order to determine the role of Canadian agencies and officials in their... (more)
Hiwot Beyene is 12 years old and dreams of becom-ing a doctor. She lives in a small Ethiopian village with her parents and brothers in a two-room hut. Every morning she takes the 1.5 hour walk to school to learn about farming, hygiene and health. After school, Hiwot spends hours on household chores till the evening, when she steals an hour to do her homework. (more)
Mama, L’Chaim! portrays the life of 63 year old Chaim, who lives together with his 96 year old mother, a concentration camp survivor, in an Jewish elderly home in Antwerpen. They are both lively and funny characters, we follow the pain of the Holocaust and laughter of their everyday existence as, with faith and humour, they keep going, never giving up hope. From a drug dealer, Hippy,... (more)
Australian based filmmakers Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw go to the Polisario governed refugee camps in the Algerian desert to make a film about a family reunion. Everything changes when the black Saharawis start to talk about a forbidden subject...their freedom. (more)
Mawla, a young man from Bangladesh living in Madrid (Spain), dreams of having a family. After seven years he decides to go back to his country for the first time in order to find a bride and get married. (more)
Helene lives together with her paranoid brother Christian. He refuses to take medicines and believes there is poisonous gas coming into the apartment. A film on force medication, paranoia and relationship between a patient and the kinfolk. (more)
During the Spanish civil war and its aftermath, thousands of people were executed and thrown into mass unmarked graves. Today people in Spain are beginning to face up to a past that has remained for 70 years an uneasy alliance of a determination to forget. In Not Reconciled, historic accounts of the civil war and Franco’s regime, novels, diaries of republican and fascist fighters, are... (more)
“Nowadays people just don’t appreciate how important water is. People should save water even more than they save money. We can’t create rain. If we waste water, there will be none left.” Tamil Selvan, farmer of Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu. Two small villages in southern India now desperately trying to cope with dwindling water resources- from this very grass root level,... (more)
How They Dance is a documentary about ordinary people who love to dance. The film is a funny and unconventional portrait of these people. (more)
In Lodz, Anna alternates between several half-day shifts as an organist, singer and painter. She always wanted to become a nun but it turned out differently. What were her reasons to radically change her life and which questions is she asking herself today? Through her personal stories we discover her singular life-path. Slowly the film sketches the pursuit of liberty of a longing feminist in... (more)
Chasing Che is the account of a four-year odyssey in which an Iranian businessman, Alireza Rofougaran, switches the course of his life. Inspired by a biography of Che Guevara, which he reads and then translates into Farsi, Alireza embarks on a long odyssey through Latin America and Europe, home movie camera in hand. His mission: to retrace Che's footsteps. In an effort to gain a greater personal... (more)
In the North of Niger, somewhere in the borders of Sahara, men are ready to the war. Under the threat of an invisible enemy, isolated by the world, they live looking forward to the fight. (more)
Cuban family trys to flee Cuba because of the way things are being governed by Vidal Castro. Vidal sends his soldiers to kill a revolutionist (the main Character)who ends up killing two soldiers before trying to take his family to America. (more)
From now on, what I have is a brand-new face, so do I look as attractive as... Taipei City to where I look forward most ? Pheiphei walks out of a cosmetic surgery clinic with a pair of sunglasses on her eyes. Through the dark glasses, the city at dusk looks just as dark. She calls her cousin, who promised to pick her up but apologizes for not being able to get off duty for another 2 or 3... (more)
“Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution are the greatest threat since the time of the Soviet Union and communism”. Doctrine for Asymmetric War Against Venezuela, U.S. Army, 2006 This is the starting point for a journey across the country which gave rise to the “red wave” in Latin America. Does Venezuela represent the dream of a new socialist society or is it just another distortion... (more)
“Cinema Paradiso Soviet style,” The Province of Lost Film is about the magic and nostalgia of watching film collectively: in a movie house; a workers’ club; or at night, on an improvised screen hung in the village square. Employees of the former distribution and exhibition network, projectionists, and viewers from central Russia reflect upon the unique and already bygone experience of the... (more)
Driven by his infatuations, a young man demonstrates the conundrums of relationships by gambling with the game of seduction. (more)
‘Iraq has got weapons of mass destruction. That is not something we think. We know it!’- Danish Prime Minister - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, 21. March 2003 Danish whistleblower, former Military Intelligence Officer Frank Grevil, faces imprisonment, public shame and the destruction of his family after exposing his government’s doubts on the Iraqi weapons program. A devastating critique on the... (more)
Wars of the future will be fought over water, as they today over oil, as the source of all life enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling fresh water supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor... (more)
Rwanda. 14 years after the genocide that took away the lives of more than 800.000 people. What's the current situation of the country? What feelings prevail in the hearts of the victims? Can victims and killers live together? What's the importance of education in a society that has lived through a genocide? Can a Film Festival make a difference?. May a genocide happen again in Rwanda? Who should... (more)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the last American Freak Show. Careering across America in a ramshackle old school bus, run on stolen vegetable oil, and piloted by Lowrent the Clown. Samantha X and Dylan have started their own show, staring such self-defined freaks as The Lobster Girl, The Half Woman, Dame Demure, and The Elephant Man. This motley crew of outsiders are resurrecting the dying art... (more)
A heart-breaking look at physically disabled Indian orphan Badrul (M.Subash), who leads a hard life as he is mistreated by his stepmother Mon (Maimon Mutalib) and step-aunt Zaitun (Khatijah Tan). Despite his disabilities, Badrul is independent and earns his living by selling keropok and porridge. He still loves his stepmother unconditionally even though she verbally and physically abuses... (more)
I have lived in Beijing during four of my teenage years. As I return 15 years later, I find a totally changed city. In my search for the old Beijing of my childhood I find the new rhythm of this fast-changing metropolis, preparing for Olympia. Old video-recordings mix with images of a modern Beijing, constructing a personal portrait of a city that I still feel at home in. (more)
Bengali telefilm(5mins) directed by Balaram Neogi. Story about a lonely childless couple who adopts a dog. Ultimately the dog win their hearts and takes the place of their child. (more)
A documentary on a group of Icelandic women who have met up twice a week during the last half a century, performing creative dance together in Iceland and abroad. The group is put together by women from all walks of life, showing their friendship and support for each other. This amazing group is still performing together today. In this documentary the women also reflect on how times have changed... (more)
Wolfgang, in his fifties now, grew up in the former GDR. He studied external trade in Berlin and after his diploma worked for 17 years at TechnoCommerz, a company specialised in machine trade for the delivery industry. With the fall of the wall, he has to change professions and becomes an insurance salesman. First employed with a German insurance firm, then he starts his own company and manages... (more)
In fact, fractals are nothing new. As colorful illustrations they hav been appearing in media for many years. But there is more behind this. Fractals provide the mathematical tool set to describe complex structures including coastlines, clouds, mountains, plants, vascular systems,growth processes, stock-exchange prices or the distribution of matter in outer space. From there it is just a little... (more)
"Words lose their meaning. And the green sea and the blue sky lose their colour, painted as they were by the algae that kindly wafted oxygen during 3,000 million years. Are these little night-lights spying on us? The stars shake with astonishment and fear. They are at a loss to understand how this world of ours, so ardently bent upon its own annihilation, goes on being alive." Eduardo... (more)
A documentary thriller. When Taliya was young, she never knew for sure whether her uncle was a KGB agent in disguise or a true member of the family. Her father claimed that his brother had been murdered in a Ukrainian prison and substituted by an imposter from the KGB, forced on the family by the old soviet regime. Her father presented his claims in a way that made his family believe this... (more)
In this heartfelt documentary, four gay men explore different options to attain their Fatherhood Dreams – Randy and Drew turn to adoption, Stephen co-parented his two daughters with a lesbian couple, and Scott prepares for the arrival of his twins through surrogacy (more)
While the U.S. is the most flaunted democracy in the world, how do we compare, and what does the rest of the world think of U.S. domestic and foreign policy? Americans are continually told through their media that freedom and democracy are being given to people abroad, but is it true?The documentary looks at seemingly different topics and creates a tapestry of tantalizing information that... (more)
JUIZO (BEHAVE) follows the process of minors (less than 18) who have fallen into the hands of the Brazilian legal system. Boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds faced with crime, ruling, and sentences handed down for theft, drug trafficking, and even murder. Due to legal constraints about revealing the true identity of the minors charged, the accused adolescents were substituted with... (more)
Tony is a 28 year-old single who inherited from an remarkable physical particularity. He has like the rest of his family very big ears and suffers from an extreme sensitivity to the slightest noise. (more)
“Qianmen” is a popular neighbourhood in the very heart of Beijing, just south of the Tiananmen Square. In the perspective of the 2008 Olympic games, the city decided that the six hundred years old neighbourhood has to be “rehabilitated”. It is now in the line of fire of the promoters, and the 80000 people living there are facing drastic (and dramatic) changes. (more)
In Yunmeng, a rural city in the Hubei Province, there’s a theater, a teahouse where old men gather amongst the shadows of the past, drinking tea and playing cards. There, an ancient art takes place and brings magic back into everyday life.But China’s growth towards a new century brings up a few questions… (more)
Anne and the Reverend tells the story of Makoto Otsuka, a reverend from Hiroshima, who met Anne Frank's father 30 years ago and, since then, transmits the memory of the Holocaust to Japanese children. Through the portrayal of this moving man, a surprising Japan, searching for its own memory, unveils itself. (more)
Een Iraanse vrouw besluit, na 17 jaar in Nederland gewoond te hebben, om terug te gaan naar haar thuisland met de droom een stuk grond te kopen. Langzaamaan ontdekt ze dat haar droom minder gemakkelijk te realiseren is dan zij had gedacht. (more)
"I’m like a hermit on an island." This is what Patrick writes about his life as an autistic who lives caught in his own body. With the wisdom of a thinker and the dreams and fears of a teenager, Patrick takes us on a trip into his world and allows us a glimpse of his inner feelings. (more)
Giuseppina feels that her days never end. She lives alone in her flat with her habits, her daily tasks that her age makes longer and more fatiguing with every day that goes by, and the glimpses of life seen through the window. Against this existence, with its so few happenings, Giuseppina has her liveliness and the wealth of her interior world. (more)
The story of an elderly crossdresser... After so many years together, Joe faces life without Jana. Saying goodbye to yourself is never easy. (more)
Scene taken from Chawkkalmi village under Bargahchali Mouza of West Bengal where village is surrounded by water and dry land is very rare where water is all as because it has necessity of ferrying by small boats and castles by villagers and peoples are used to fishing and hands to mouth by fishing as it is their profession. (more)
RAPPING WITH SHAKESPEARE is a modern day hip-hop version of Shakespeare’s tales that explores the lives of five South Central Los Angeles’ teenagers attending Crenshaw High School. The student’s personal stories subtly parallel Shakespeare’s archetypal characters. Also, the documentary examines how a popular English teacher, Andy Molnar uses the students’ popular culture, hip-hop/rap to... (more)
“River Ways” explores the lives of regular working people affected by the issue of whether to remove four dams on the Snake River in Eastern Washington. Environmental groups and fishing interests criticize the dams for their negative impact on salmon populations, but agricultural communities dependent on the dams oppose efforts to remove them. Combining interviews with careful everyday... (more)
| Rank | Festival Name | Attendance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Int'l Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam | 131,214 |
| 2 | Hot Docs Canadian Int'l Documentary | 122,000 |
| 3 | ekotopfilm | 70,000 |
| 4 | One World Int'l Human Rights | 60,000 |
| 5 | Cinema Verite: Iran Int'l Documentary Film Festival | 50,000 |
| 6 | Japan Wildlife Film Festival | 40,000 |
| 7 | CPH Dox | 37,000 |
| 8 | Thessaloniki Documentary Festival | 35,000 |
| 9 | Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival | 30,000 |
| 9 | Mediawave Int'l Film and Music | 30,000 |
| 9 | Techfilm Science Technology & Art | 30,000 |
| Rank | Festival Name | Pro. Att |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot Docs Canadian Int'l Documentary | 524 |
| 2 | Thessaloniki Documentary Festival | 459 |
| 3 | One World Int'l Human Rights | 400 |
| 4 | Yamagata Int'l Documentary | 347 |
| 5 | Int'l Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam | 336 |
| 6 | World Festival Underwater Pictures | 250 |
| 7 | DOK Leipzig | 200 |
| 7 | Int'l Festival Environmental Film | 200 |
| 9 | Visions du Reel Nyon Documentary | 170 |
| 10 | Docaviv Documentary Film Festival | 150 |
| Rank | Festival Name | # |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DOK Leipzig | 320 |
| 2 | Message to Man Int'l Documentary | 305 |
| 3 | CMS VATAVARAN Environment & Wildlife Film Festival | 304 |
| 4 | Exground Filmfest | 290 |
| 5 | Int'l Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam | 280 |
| 6 | Yamagata Int'l Documentary | 238 |
| 7 | Thessaloniki Documentary Festival | 236 |
| 8 | Kassel Documentary Film & Video | 235 |
| 9 | Chicago Int'l Documentary Festival | 210 |
| 10 | Cinema Verite: Iran Int'l Documentary Film Festival | 200 |
| Rank | Festival Name | Established |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival | 1950 |
| 2 | Trento FilmFestival | 1953 |
| 3 | DOK Leipzig | 1955 |
| 4 | CINE Golden Eagle Film & Video Competitions | 1957 |
| 5 | Bilbao Documentary & Short Films | 1958 |
| 6 | Festival dei Popoli | 1959 |
| 7 | Techfilm Science Technology & Art | 1964 |
| 8 | Academia Film Olomouc | 1966 |
| 9 | Visions du Reel Nyon Documentary | 1969 |
| 10 | ekotopfilm | 1974 |
| 10 | World Festival Underwater Pictures | 1974 |