DOCUMENTARIES OF THE WORLD 2010
AGHET - EIN VÖLKERMORD (PI)
Germany - Armenia - United States / 2010 / Colour / 93 min / Dir.: Eric Friedler
AGHET (Armenian for “catastrophe”) tells the story of the massacre of Armenians during World War I in which over a million people were killed in the Ottoman empire (today Turkey). Raphael Lemkin, "father” of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, calls the events of those time the first systematically executed genocide of the 20th century. Still, these organized killings, which are widely accepted as “genocide” by Western governments, including the US Congress, has been regularly denied by those responsible and their successors, the Turkish government. AGHET follows the ongoing debate and its political consequences.
APPELEZ-MOI SALMA (PI)
France - Bangladesh / 2010 / Colour / 54 min / Dir.: Sébastien Rist, Aude Leroux-Lévesque
Salma is a documentary film about love and loss. Set in the crowded back alleys of Dhaka, Bangladesh, the film follows Salma as she enters the mysterious world of transsexuality. A 15-year old hijra (hermaphrodite), she leaves her village and family to enter the effervescent city life in search of a clear identity, love and above all, a sense of acceptance. Emotionally torn between her youth and her desire of being a woman, Salma will be faced with events that will force her, as well as the audience, to question any preconceived notions of gender, sexuality, family and love.
AVOIR 32 ANS (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 104 min / Dir.: Robbie Hart, Luc Côté
What are the universal characteristics that all humans share? Robbie Hart and Luc Côté explore this question as they meet again with five people they originally interviewed 16 years ago for the TV series Turning 16. Living in Jamaica, Brazil, Thailand, Niger and India, the five men and women recount the events that have marked their lives, revisit their past dreams and talk about their aspirations today. TURNING 32 transcends borders by offering a compassionate look at the journey to adulthood around the world.
BEETHOVEN-PROJEKT, DAS (PM)
Germany / 2010 / Colour / 93 min / Dir.: Christian Berger
The 40 musicians of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen are one of Germany’s most unique orchestras. This superb chamber ensemble, the “authoritative Beethoven orchestra of our day” according to the New York Sun, and their artistic director Paavo Järvi have accepted the challenge to play all of Beethoven’s nine symphonies in just 4 days at Bonn’s international Beethoven festival, the “Beethovenfest Bonn”. This film documents that achievement, focusing on Järvi and selected musicians as they convey their love of music and offer insight into an orchestra’s inner workings.
CAMINOS DE LA MEMORIA, LOS (PNA)
Belgium - Spain / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: José-Luis Peñafuerte
Franco’s dictatorship, one of the longest and bloodiest in 20th century Europe, has been shrouded in silence by Spain since his death, more than 30 years ago. In December 2007, the Historical Memory Law was passed despite controversy. The Spanish government at last sought to lift the veil from this period and do justice to the hundreds of thousands of victims of Franco. José-Luis Peñafuerte, himself a descendant of exiles, examines this suppressed memory as a window against forgetting. There are still many pieces of this incomplete puzzle in Spain’s collective conscious: the mass graves, the concentration camps, the prisons, the roads to exile, the still vivid traces of Franco.
CAMP UNITY (PM)
United States - Iraq / 2009 / Colour / 83 min / Dir.: Ryan White
A diverse group of Iraqi performing arts students unite through hip hop, jazz, orchestra, and Broadway music at an American arts academy in Iraqi Kurdistan. Arabs and Kurds, Christians and Muslims, Americans and Iraqis, everyone must work together to prepare for the big show. Along the way, cultures collide, egos clash, dreams come true, and the viewer is offered a candid and revealing look at the troubles and triumphs of this life-changing event.
CERCA DE TUS OJOS () (PNA)
Spain / 2009 / Colour / 74 min / Dir.: Elías Querejeta
Cast : Maribel Verdú, Carlos Kanyoski, José Antonio Ceínos, Belén Laguna
Her job as a journalist has taken Ana all over the world. Since her teenage years, thanks to her father’s influence, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its contents, has been the foundation of her perspective on human behaviour, both individually and collectively, As well, Ana is an expert in the field of applying new technologies to communication. This, together with her deep desire for the amelioration of the human condition, leads her to draw up a document recounting the terrible injustices committed against human rights over six decades since the Universal Declation was signed in Paris on Dec. 10, 1948.
CHE. UN HOMBRE NUEVO (PC)
Argentina - Cuba - Spain / 2010 / Colour / 124 min / Dir.: Tristán Bauer
Ernesto Guevara, "el Che", remains one of the most recognized if controversial icons of our times. His image emblazoned on posters and t-shirts, Che’s reputation and politics continue to influence the young generation four decades after his death. This subjective documentary, based on family and military files, many of which have never been shown before, sees Che from his own perspective, touching on his particular, romantic view of reality and his determination to continue the revolution long after his comrades moved on to more practical endeavours.
CORPUS (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 65 min / Dir.: Connie Diletti
With her bubbly personality and zest for life, Connie Diletti is the quintessential optimist. Happy, healthy, 32, Connie really only has one problem, but it’s a big one: she’s afraid to die. Connie was leading quite a deathless life until recently, when a government health insurance representative asked her what she planned to do with her body after death. The wheels in Connie’s curious mind began to turn and soon everything in her life took on a shade of death. Like any modern girl, Connie is a conscientious consumer. She decides to travel across North America and learn what she can about the people, places and facilities involved in non-traditional afterlife services...
DANCING CHAPLIN (PM)
Japan / 2010 / Colour / 131 min / Dir.: Masayuki Suo
The celebrated French choreographer Roland Petit had always had his eye on a film presentation of his ballet “Chaplin Dances”, which premiered in 1991 and has been touring the world since, and he assigned this project to his trusted friend, Masayuki Suo, pioneer of the current revival of Japanese cinema. Drawing upon a wealth of worldwide ballet talent, Petit's ballet and Chaplin's films, Suo reinvented the work and has given it a new lease of life. The resulting piece is not simply a filmed record of the ballet but a union of the two media that reflects the meeting of the great talents of Chaplin, Petit and Suo.
DIE WAHRHEIT ÜBER DRACULA (PM)
Germany / 2010 / Colour / 82 min / Dir.: Stanislaw Mucha
When Bram Stoker wrote his novel Dracula in 1897, the Romanians didn’t pay much attention to their medieval leader Vlad Tepes. Nicknamed the “the Impaler”, Vlad was probably no more cruel that other 15th century despots. But when Stoker’s novel became a bestseller, Romanians realized that he wasn’t so bad after all, especially for tourism. Nowadays Romania is cluttered with Dracula castles, hotels and crowded markets stocked with Dracula souvenirs. This film documents an amusing journey across a beautiful but troubled land where the people urgently long for a strong but righteous leader like Dracula.
DREAMING NICARAGUA (PNA)
Nicaragua - United States / 2010 / Colour / 60 min / Dir.: Marcelo Bukin
DREAMING NICARAGUA lyrically portrays four children's lives submerged in poverty in Nicaragua. The film takes us beyond their hardships and gives voice to the children, who are surprisingly funny, hopeful and optimistic. A traveling art teacher provides a safe arena for our four unlikely protagonists to express their innermost thoughts. When painting, the children momentarily escape the stresses of their reality into a world of dreams and ideas, a stark contrast to their lives outside: a vicious cycle of hunger, child labour and violence. Despite the extreme circumstances, the children and their families face their realities with an inspiring unity and strength.
ENFANTS DE SOLDATS (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 52 min / Dir.: Claire Corriveau
At an age when they should be curious and carefree, the children of Canadian Forces Base Petawawa live in fear. Fear that a parent may never return from his or her deployment. Or come back forever changed. But in a tightly-knit military community, spontaneous expressions of anxiety, sadness or resentment are taboo. This film incisively explores the day-to-day reality of those young people subjected to the imperatives of the state, weaving together testimonials by children and teens from four families to depict a singular universe in which one's behaviour and worldview are shaped by a military culture.
FACING GENOCIDE - KHIEU SAMPHAN AND POL POT (PNA)
Sweden - Norway / 2010 / Colour / 94 min / Dir.: David Aronowitsch, Staffan Lindberg
Khieu Samphan was head of state of one of the most brutal governments ever, the 1970s’ Khmer Rouge regime in Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia). The filmmakers followed him over a period of one-and-half years before his arrest in 2007. He is now facing a trial, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. This film offers a look into his mindset, his life today and his close relation to the infamous Pol Pot. The film is a unique portrait of man who once oversaw the life and death of millions of Cambodians, as seen in the time before his arrest and before he is put on trial.
FALL OF WOMENLAND, THE (PC)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 46 min / Dir.: Xiaodan He
A documentary investigation into the unique sexual culture of the Mosuo people -- a small minority situated in the southwest of China -- one of the last remaining matriarchal societies in the world. Without a formal marriage contract, the Mosuo traditionally build relationships based on free love and sexual satisfaction. But can the sexual liberty and power of the Mosuo women survive as modern Chinese society slowly encroaches their ancestral land? We follow Bima, a young Mosuo woman, and learn of her reality and of the dangers that threaten her inherited way of life.
FALSO ORGASMO (FAKE ORGASM) (PI)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 81 min / Dir.: Jo Sol
Lazlo Pearlman is a conceptual artist, performer and director who specializes in the transgender experience. He has a master's in "physical theatre" from the London International School (2005) and has conducted training workshops in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the UK. Over his two-decade career, has experimented with all kinds of artistic and performative disciplines, including physical theatre, installations, cabaret, burlesque, vaudeville, clowning, film and video. In this film he continues his mission to explode prejudices and dogmas about sex and identity.
GILLES JACOB, L'ARPENTEUR DE LA CROISETTE (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 65 min / Dir.: Serge Le Péron
In Cannes, from the top of the stairs of the Palais du Festival, Gilles Jacob has seen the film world come to him for more than 30 years. Jacob owes his position as the president of the world’s pre-eminent film festival first to his love of the cinema, but his management skills which have enabled him to walk the tightrope between cinema as an art and as an industry. Punctuated by film clips, this film documents key scenes of his life and his career, in particular his meetings with stars and film directors of yesterday (Fellini, Truffaut) and today (Tarentino, Almodovar, Jane Campion, Lars Von Trier).
GOD NO SAY SO () (PNA)
Switzerland - Sierra Leone / 2010 / Colour / 88 min / Dir.: Brigitte Uttar Kornetzky
God is the backdrop, not the centerpiece, for this film about a flourish of humanity in the wake of evil in West Africa. Tens of thousands of hands were chopped off during the 11-year war, to be sent to the president of Sierra Leone. "The hand you voted with for the civilian government," rebels would say, "you will never vote with again." Four thousand people have survived the crude amputations. A victim is asked if he would seek revenge against the man who did this to him. He reflects; then says, "Me? God no say so."
GOODBYE BABYLON (PM)
Spain - Iraq / 2010 / Colour / 84 min / Dir.: Amer Alwan
U.S. Army Sergeant Frank O'Farrell served three years in Iraq. Convinced of his mission of liberation, he becomes aware, while in Iraq, of the more complex reasons for the U.S. invasion. He befriends Dyar, an Iraqi interpreter who helps him discover another face of the country. After three years he is relieved to be back home in New York with his wife and children. But the images of the war begin to haunt him. Although he regularly corresponds with Dylar, now a taxi driver, O’Farrell becomes increasingly concerned for his friend’s safety. Dyar, like most interpreters, has now become a target of the fundamentalists...
HAÏTI, LA BLESSURE DE L'ÂME (PI)
France - Haiti / 2010 / Colour / 56 min / Dir.: Cécile Allegra, Raoul Seigneur
"The people here are as damaged as their houses,” according to Camille-Louis, a young Haitian psychologist. Since the earthquake, he has received dozens of people who suffer from an insidious disorder: loss of appetite, repeated nightmares, prostration, choking sensations, sudden panic... All the symptoms of acute post-traumatic stress. The phenomenon is widespread: children, teens, adults, no one is spared. The filmmakers followed a cross-section of Haitians, from all social classes. Care-givers were also affected. A documentary on an incredible trauma, that of an entire nation.
HAMMADA (PNA)
Spain - Algeria / 2009 / Colour / 85 min / Dir.: Anna M. Bofarull
One of the strongest curses of the Saharawi people says: "God send you to the Hammada!”, the most inhospitable and sterile area of the Sahara desert. But in the middle of the Algerian Hammada, in the Tinduf region, approximately 200,000 Saharawi have been living in refugee camps for more than 30 years. In 1975, when Spain left its last North African colony, Western Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania quickly occupied the territory and thousands of colonists pushed out the native Saharawi people, who fled into the desert. The Saharawais gave the camps the names of their native cities: El Aaiún, Dajla, Smara and Ausserd. But that’s as close to their homeland as they’ve managed to get in 30 years...
HAVANYORK (PC)
Mexico - Cuba / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Luciano Larobina
The camera prowls the neighborhoods of Havana and New York to catch the relationship of local musicians with their roots, the varied uses of drum and hip hop. The rebellious discourse of the musicians invites us to reflect on the counterculture and the parallel realities that arise under different governments. Different-but-similar dreams, the family, the barrio, the city, life, war, and politics are among the many recurrent themes in their music.
HIDDEN FACE OF SUICIDE, THE () (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 59 min / Dir.: Yehudit Silverman
In The Hidden Face of Suicide, filmmaker and creative arts therapist Yehudit Silverman enters the world of the survivors, those who have lost loved ones to suicide, and reveals their remarkable stories. At seventeen, Silverman herself learned by accident that her uncle, who died before she was born, had taken his own life, yet nobody spoke about it. Looking for the story behind her parents’ silence, Silverman sets out on a journey of understanding and transformation, along the way revealing the complex shape of an often hidden issue, and the terrible cost of silence.
HOOPING LIFE, THE (PI)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 75 min / Dir.: Amy Goldstein
This isn’t your mother’s hula hoop. Today, “hula-hooping” is vibrant with singular moves, outrageous styles, and a strong sense of community -- a complete subculture.The film opens in the West coast underground club scene, where Hoopalicious, a party raver, revolutionizes a kid’s toy into a liquid hoop dance. Through performances and workshops, Hoopalicious invites others into the hooping life. She brings hooping to South Central where Tisha, the daughter of a gang leader, creates an after-school hip-hop-hoop program, providing kids with an alternative to gangs. Hooping inspires a variety of endeavours.
HOW MUCH DOES YOUR BUILDING WEIGH, MR. FOSTER? (PNA)
United Kingdom - Spain / 2010 / Colour / 78 min / Dir.: Norberto López Amado, Carlos Carcas
The film traces the rise of one of the world’s foremost architects, Norman Foster, and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design. Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of emblematic projects such as the Beijing airport, the Reichstag in Berlin, the Hearst Building in New York and works such as the massive Millau bridge. In the very near future, mankind will have abandoned the countryside and live entirely in cities. Foster offers some striking solutions to the problems that this momentous change will entail.
INDIA BY SONG (PM)
India - France / 2010 / Colour / 64 min / Dir.: Vijay Singh
Woven around a road journey across the country, INDIA BY SONG brings together history, colourful Bollywood song clips, live testimonies and a variety of contemporary images to form a portrait of the place of song in India since its independence in 1947 and the changing images of love and romance over the decades.The film mixes history and cinema in its eclectic panorama of dancing and singing actresses, thinkers, domestic servants, farmers and cricketers.
KUMBUKUMBU ZA MTI UUNGUAO (PNA)
Tanzania - Netherlands - Singapore - Malaysia / 2010 / Colour / 86 min / Dir.: Sherman Ong
Smith comes to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to tie up some loose ends. He meets Link, a tourist guide, who agrees to help him. Along the way they are offered help by Abdul, a grave digger, and Toatoa, a metal scavenger, who themselves are searching for answers to their own journeys. Their search eventually leads them to realize that this is a never-ending voyage of dreams and disappointments. With an ensemble cast of non-professional actors and an improvised script, this film is an homage to the road movie genre, where ultimately the road ends when you want it to end.
KURDISHLOVER (PM)
France - Finland / 2010 / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Clarisse Hahn
A certain Kurdistan. A shaman goes into trance in front of the television; a sex-starved hermit dreams of getting married; a ewe is sacrificed and eaten; an old woman prevents her daughter-in-law from learning to read; a shepherdess lives at the top of the mountain and would like to come back down; the military watch over the village; a man from Europe requests the hand in marriage of a young girl living with her mother. Through relationships involving control, money, rivalry and love, each seeks his place among the others.
LAST AMONG THE MEN, THE () (PI)
France / 2010 / Couleur / 52 min / Dir.: Sophie Azemar
The Indian caste system defines social classes by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, or jatis, and four varnas, the Brahmins (teachers, scholars and priests), the Kshatriyas (kings and warriors), the Vaishyas (farmers and traders), and Shudras (artisans, service providers, labourers). Despite constitutional outlawing of caste-based discrimination, the caste system, in various forms, continues to mark Indian society and more than 160 million people are considered “untouchable”, people tainted by their birth into a system that deems them impure. Laws notwithstanding, discrimination against the Dalits is rampant. This film investigates their condition in the state of Tamil Nadu.
LETTERE DAL DESERTO (ELOGIO DELLA LENTEZZA) (PC)
Italie / 2010 / Colour / 88 min / Dir.: Michela Occhipinti
Hari is a postman. Every day for 20 years, he has been walking through the Thar desert in India to deliver letters to remote villages, holding in his hands the records of secluded lives, of loves, weddings, successes and deaths. His life and that of his big family are marked by the passing of the monsoons, by events made real by the ink on paper, and by Hari's walks in worn-out shoes. Everything follows the rhythm of the desert. It is a slow life made up of friendships, of smiles and solid relations. It is shaped by wind, by sun and rain. Until a strange metallic tower is built in the village and things start changing...
LOVE, LUST & LIES (PNA)
Australia / 2010 / Couleur / 87 min / Dir.: Gillian Armstrong
Cast : Kerry Carlson, Josie Petersen, Diana Doman
Australian director Gillian Armstrong has been following three lively, working class Adelaide girls since 1976 when they were just fourteen. For more than thirty years, Kerry, Josie and Diana’s struggles have captured all our hearts. Now 47, the women’s stories resonate with universal themes about families, love, loss, hopes and dreams. LOVE, LUST & LIES is the fifth instalment in the series and follows SMOKES AND LOLLIES (1976), 14’S GOOD 18’s BETTER (1980), BINGO, BRIDESMAIDS AND BRACES (1988) and NOT FOURTEEN AGAIN (1995). This is the first and longest documentary longitudinal study of young Australians and it is compelling drama – moving, funny and honest.
LUANDA, A FÁBRICA DA MÚSICA (PNA)
Portugal - Angola / 2009 / Colour / 54 min / Dir.: Kiluanje Liberdade, Inês Gonçalves
In the middle of a slum in Luanda, the capital of Angola, DJ Buda owns a recording studio. The boys of the neighbourhood all want to try his machine oozing kuduro sound. His equipment gives the young singers the opportunity to express themselves. Rhyming to Buda's beats, the kids shout out all their worries and everyday experiences. Each boy tells his story in his own way. The result of these Buda sessions is a polyphonic cacophony that mirrors life in Angola. They want to listen to themselves. They dance. In the end they take it all home on a CD.
MAINS NOIRES, LES (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 52 min / Dir.: Tetchena Bellange
Cast : Tetchena Bellange, Franck Sylvestre, Sonia Gadbois, Daniel Desputeau, Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne, Paul Fehmiu-Brown
In 1734, Marie-Josèphe Angélique, a black slave in New France, was accused of setting a fire that caused the destruction of a large part of the young city of Montreal. After an epic, highly irregular trial, the courageous young woman was found guilty, tortured and hanged. Was she really guilty or simply the scapegoat for an accidential fire? Historians and researchers consider the evidence along with the utter silence about the existence of black slaves in New France. In the streets of Old Montreal, a guide walks us through the key landmarks of Angélique’s history, which is parallelly played out by actors in an historical reconstruction.
MES DEUX SEINS. Journal d'une guérison (PNA)
France - Belgium / 2010 / Colour / 92 min / Dir.: Marie Mandy
The director learns with shock that she has breast cancer. Will her life end tomorrow? How to cope? The filmmaker in her decides to support the patient in search of meaning. In search of a cure that is also internal and physical, her camera switches between conventional and “alternative” medicine. She explores all aspects of a disease that affects one out of every nine women. Will she lose her breast? She investigates the new “Amazons”, those women who have decided not to replace their amputated breasts. An intimate portrait of a dreaded disease.
MINE, DE FIL EN AIGUILLE (PI)
France / 2009 / Colour / 83 min / Dir.: Valérie Minetto
A portrait of Mine Barral Vergez who, for over four decades, has been making costumes for the most famous Parisian cabarets and theatres such as the Moulin Rouge, the Lido, the Crazy Horse Saloon, the Olympia, even the Comédie Française. She has dressed some of the most celebrated artists of our time beginning with Juliette Greco, Nana Mouskouri, Dalida and Barbara. A star in the shadows, Mine is caught by this documentary at a time of transition: she is passing her torch to her successor. A loving portrait illustrated with appearances by Juliette Gréco, Barbara, Nana Mouskouri, Nicole Croisille...
MONTRÉAL, 31 FRAGMENTS D'URBANITÉ (PM)
Canada / 2009 / Colour / 106 min / Dir.: Jean Tessier
Filmed over the course of four seasons, MONTRÉAL, 31 FRAGMENTS D’URBANITÉ gathers a variety of life fragments to paint a remarkable and vivid picture of the city of Montreal. A socio-poetic documentary in the tradition of the early urban symphonies, the film offers an original perspective on the human texture and urban space of Montreal. Via short chronicles of daily life that encompass poetry and and social awareness, the film pays tribute to the citizens, young and old, who contribute either individually or collectively to the quality of life of the metropolis, a city at once unique and captivating.
MURDER BY PROXY: HOW AMERICA WENT POSTAL (PM)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 75 min / Dir.: Emil Chiaberi
The term “going postal” has become the way we commonly refer to the mental state of anybody who goes on a shooting spree, typically in a workplace or a school, but also in any other public place. What drives people to kill this way, what pushes them over the edge? And what is it about US Postal Service that made it a poster boy for workplace massacres? It's clear that the scope of the problem is dramatic; it can no longer be written off as a few aberrations of the news cycle... As it explores the startling history of the going postal phenomenon, the film also follows the story of two extraordinary men brought together by their selfless dedication to defending the rights of ordinary American workers.
NARGIS - QUAND LE TEMPS A CESSÉ DE RESPIRER (PNA)
Myanmar - Germany / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Kyaw Kyaw Oo, Maung Myint Aung
“In May 2008 a cyclone called Nargis raged for hours in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, killing over 140,000 people. We felt compelled to do something. Seven days after the storm, we made our way to villages that had been utterly devastated, and met people who had lost everything. We recorded scenes that touched us to the core, such as rain-drenched survivors searching for wood and nails in the mud to build a roof over their heads. Life was going on, somehow, in the most fragile of settings – and yet it felt as if time had stood still. We moved through a world that appeared more surreal than real, where life and death seemed to coexist and survivors talked about the dead as if they were still with them.”
OJOS ROJOS (RED EYES) (PNA)
Chile / 2010 / Colour / 85 min / Dir.: Ismael Larraín, Juan Pablo Sallato, Juan Ignacio Sabatini
A documentary about soccer, RED EYES follows the Chilean national team over eight years, recording the passions the sport unleashes and observing the qualities and faults it highlights in the team’s host society. The film attempts to discover the reasons why soccer is the world’s most popular sport and provides the social and historial background of the game in Chile especially in a larger, South American context. How does soccer in Chile compare with soccer in other countries and what can be learned from any similarities or differences? What exactly happens when people halt their daily activities and enter the soccer stadium, some to play and others to watch?
SAISON DES FUNÉRAILLES, LA (PM)
Canada - Cameroon / 2010 / Colour / 86 min / Dir.: Matthew Lancit
In a whimsical ghost story travelogue, a foreigner finds himself in the midst of a culture where “the dead are not dead”. Village by village, locals take him on a road trip through Cameroon’s most joyous funeral celebrations. Along the way, he befriends his guides and becomes increasingly haunted by memories of his own ancestors.
SCIENTOLOGIE, LA VÉRITÉ SUR UN MENSONGE (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: Jean-Charles Deniau
Founded in 1950 in the United States by Ron Hubbard and re-baptized a "church" in 1954, Scientology -- whether it is considered a "mental technology", a church or a sect -- has succeeded within 50 years in establishing itself as a formidable organization across the western world. What is this empire whose techniques are decried by former members and yet continues to attract? What are its goals, practices, ideology? To analyze the workings of Scientology, we meet former disciples -- as well as those who remain believers -- and we see how, as in organized religions, one can be taken in body and soul, sometimes along with one’s entire family, children included.
SEÑORA DE (PNA)
Spain / 2009 / Colour / 80 min / Dir.: Patricia Ferreira
Generations of Spanish women were not allowed to dream. All they could do was to resign themselves and accept the fact they were born and brought up in a place and time when their voices, their desires and even their thoughts were silenced. The testimonies in this film come from a wide spectrum of women from different social strata, different educational backgrounds and all parts of the country. These women speak for the first time about what their life was like, and repression that today, in developed society, we regard as utterly intolerable but which represented the everyday lives of Spanish women not that long ago.
SINGULARITY IS NEAR, A TRUE STORY ABOUT THE FUTURE, THE (PI)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 80 min / Dir.: Anthony Waller
Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading inventors of computer programs and peripherals in the fields of scanning, music synthesis and character and speech recognition, is interviewed about his widely-debated views of artificial intelligence and the convergence of man and machines. As an illustration of his theories, Kurzweil creates a computer avatar named Ramona. He raises her like a modern-day Pinocchio, and she gradually acquires consciousness. Ramona detects a secret attempt by microscopic robots to destroy the world, but her warnings are ignored because she is not recognized as a person. Her computerized nature lets her stop the robot attack but lands her in trouble with the law...
TOSCAN (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour - B&W / 87 min / Dir.: Isabelle Partiot-Pieri
“Bon vivant, raconteur, and legendary producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier passed away in 2003, but his flamboyant personality lives on in the hours of TV interviews assembled in Isabelle Partiot-Pieri's documentary... With his aristocratic accent and cutting humour, Toscan du Plantier was for many decades the unofficial face of the French film industry, both at home when he ran Gaumont and abroad as president of Unifrance. He was also one of the rare producers who spoke freely about the metier's oxymoronic mix of commerce and art, claiming in all truthfulness that his job was to ‘preside over failures’.” -- Jordan Mintzer (Variety)
VOUS ÊTES SERVIS (PNA)
Belgium - Indonesia / 2010 / Colour / 60 min / Dir.: Jorge León
Jogjakarta, Indonesia, 2009. In a recruitment centre, women undergo training to become maids. They learn how to use a microwave, how to be polite, their future employer’s language and stamina at work. Tens of thousands of them leave each month for Asia or the Middle East in the hope of a decent salary and bringing money back home. But hope sometimes turns into a nightmare: overworked and mistreated, they are reduced to a state of slavery. Their stories lie behind the domestic function for which they were trained, revealed in looks, words, laughter and shocking silence.
À grands coups de sécateur - je vous aime (PM)
Canada / 2010 / B&W / 5 min / Dir.: Marie-Pierre Grenier
Poetic text of a muted violence, illustrated by a collage of images whose grey areas are palpable.
(Aller)-retour (PM)
Canada / 2010 / B&W / 5 min / Dir.: Mélanie Pitteloud
On a trip to meet the Other, a young woman visiting India finds herself.
Anna (PM)
Canada - Germany / 2010 / Colour / 13 min / Dir.: Khoa Lê, Mathieu Verreault
An experimental portrait of Anna Konjetzky, a German contemporary dance choreographer based in Munich.
Camerun, breu història d'un embaràs ()
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 13 min / Dir.: Doménec Boronat
For a while we wanted to travel to Cameroon, but a pregnancy got in the way… An account of a hope, of fears and a disappointment.
Chemins de Mahjouba, Les ()
France / 2010 / Colour / 44 min / Dir.: Rafaèle Layani
In the confined spaces of a car and an office in Morocco, Mahjouba, the head of a charity, talks with single mothers -- a series of dialogues which sheds light on the clashes between life and social mores.
Harga () (PI)
Tunisia - France / 2010 / Colour / 26 min / Dir.: Leila Chaïbi
Since childhood, Hichem has dreamed of making the clandestine trip to Europe, where, supposedly fortune awaits. Now, after finally making the trip, Hichem has returned. But others keep dreaming.
Nigatu - The Running Dream ()
Ethiopia - Germany / 2010 / Colour / 38 min / Dir.: Steve Döschner
Cast : Nigatu Workyu Angasu
The documentary follows Nigatu, an Ethiopian marathon runner on his way from Addis Ababa to one of the world’s largest marathon races in Frankfurt, Germany. A chance to earn money.
Pas perdus (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 12 min / Dir.: Tobie Fraser
Steps lead us to a small dance studio in the heart of Brussels where dancers participate in a session of improvisation.
Poids de la ressemblance, Le (PM)
Canada / 2010 / B&W / 5 min / Dir.: Marie-Claude Fournier
Between fear, guilt and forgiveness, this short film looks at intergenerational relations marked by mental illness.
Quand toutes les feuilles seront tombées (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 17 min / Dir.: Alanis Obomsawin
As the only First Nations student in a 1940s all-white school, 8-year old Wato is bullied and ostracized, but she finds solace, strength and inspiration in her magical dreams.
Retour aux souches (PM)
Canada / 2010 / B&W / 5 min / Dir.: Guillaume Lévesque
In response to forestry work that his father imposed on him in his youth, what a man once scorned has become, over time, the foundation of his person.
Symptomatique (PM)
Canada / 2010 / B&W / 5 min / Dir.: Jérôme Rocipon
To France, a private letter on the subject of wandering that is at once sober and ironic.
Umareru ()
Japan / 2010 / Colour / 8 min / Dir.: Tomo
Junichi, an emergency medical technician, and his wife Takako, a nurse, who work with life and death daily, now want a new life of their own, a baby.
Valse avec moi ()
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 5 min / Dir.: Catherine Proulx
The act of life-giving is a dance that is at once tender and violent. It ends only to begin again.
Vivir del aire ()
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: David Macián
Cast : Curro Savoy, Bruto Pomeroy, José Luis Aribarri, José Luis Álvarez, Alfonso Eduardo
Who is the man behind the famous whistles heard in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns?
Voix du grenier, Les (PM)
Canada - Germany / 2010 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Anna Brass, Magdalena Hutter
An intimate portrait of octogenarian Vera Bondy, an elegant and vivacious guide at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
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