Eye For Film >> Festivals >> EIFF >> 2008 >> Document
The EIFF started off as a documentary film festival in 1947, and this year's documentary strand is particularly strong. They say; "Honouring our history as a documentary festival, we still seek out the most intriguing real-life stories from all over the world."
View other Edinburgh International Film Festival Films by strand: Black Box, British Gala, Director's Showcase, Gala, Mirrorball, Night Moves, Retrospecive: Jeanne Moreau, Retrospective: Shirley Clarke, Rosebud, Shorts, Under The Radar
The Order Of Myths and Mechanical Love
Alone In Four Walls (Allein In Vier Wänden)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Alexandra Westmeier; Writer: Alexandra Westmeier)
Inside a juvenile Russian reform school.
UK Premiere
Angels In The Dust
(Country: South Africa; Year: 2007; Director: Louise Hogarth; Writer: Louise Hogarth; Stars: Marion Cloete, Con Cloete), Official Site, Trailer
Documentary about a wealthy, privileged family who build a community for children whose lives have been devastated by HIV/AIDS.
UK Premiere
The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins
(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2007; Director: Pietra Brettkelly; Writer: Pietra Brettkelly), Official Site
An artist's obssessive attempt to adopt twins in Darfur.
UK Premiere
Cafe De Los Maestros
(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Miguel Kohan; Writer: Miguel Kohan, Gustavo Santaolalla)
A celebratory film about the maestros of tango.
UK Premiere
Document Shorts
(Year: 2008)
Glimpses of the weird and wonderful, the heartbreaking and hilarious, from real lives all over the world. Featuring: Bergeronnettes (Alicia Van Assche), Bullet Proof Vest (May Lin Au Yong)
I Shot The Mayor (or: Plan B) (Astrid Bussink), Kredens (Jacob Dammas), Living On The Landing (Podestleben) (Sandra Budesheim, Sabine Zimmer), Plane Days (Benjamin Kracun, Ewan McNicol), Pull, The (Andy Blubaugh), Valley of the Goats (Leon Dean).
Encounters At The End Of The World and Jesus Christ Saviour
Dreams With Sharp Teeth
(Country: USA; Year: 2007; Director: Erik Nelson; Writer: Erik Nelson; Stars: Harlan Ellison, Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman, Peter David, Ronald D. Moore, Josh Olson, Tom Snyder)
UK Premiere
Fiercely intelligent and ubiquitous writer Harlan Ellison is put under the lens by Robin Williams.
Encounters At The End Of The World
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Werner Herzog; Stars: Werner Herzog), Official Site, Trailer
The infamous director Werner Herzog visits the Antarctic, determined not to make a movie about penguins.
UK Premiere
Fairytale Of Kathmandu
(Country: UK, Ireland; Year: 2007; Director: Neasa Ni Chianain), Official Site
Following an admired writer to his spiritual home in Nepal leads to a difficult discovery.
UK Premiere
Jesus Christ Saviour (Jesus Christus Erlöser)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Peter Geyer; Writer: Klaus Kinski; Stars: Klaus Kinski)
Klaus Kinski (so immortally captured in Werner Herzog's My Best Fiend) gives a showstopping performance with a defiant monologue.
International Premiere
Mechanical Love
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2007; Director: Phie Ambo)
Artificial Intelligence and the Uncanny Valley, androids that we can love bookend the story.
UK Premiere
Angels In The Dust and Cafe De Los Maestros
The New 10 Commandments
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Nick Higgins, Kenny Glenaan, Douglas Gordon, Irvine Welsh, Mark Cousins, Tilda Swinton, Sana Bilgrami, Alice Nelson, Doug Aubrey, David Graham Scott, Anna Jones), Official Site
Celebration the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declarations of Human Rights interpreted through the prism of Scotland today.
Obscene
(Country: USA; Year: 2007; Director: Daniel O’Connor, Neil Ortenberg)
Documentary about Barney Rosset, who challenged obscenity laws most famously in the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
European Premiere
The Order Of Myths
(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Margaret Brown), Official Site
Using dual Mardi Gras parades, The Order of Myths delves into cultural exploration and integration in a community still stuck in tradition.
European Premiere
Pageant
(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Ron Davis, Stewart Halpern), Official Site
An in-depth look at drag queens in preparation for the Miss Gay America.
International Premiere
Paradise (Paradiset)
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2007; Director: Jerzy Sladkowski)
The story of wallpaper and marriage in a house on a lake in Sweden.
UK Premiere
Fairytale Of Kathmandu and Obscene
Scottish Short Documentary Award Screening
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: See individual reviews.)
Collection of Scottish short documentaries.
sleep furiously
(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Gideon Koppel)
Rural Wales faces change from all sides as the population ages.
World Premiere
Three Miles North Of Molkom
(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Robert Cannan, Corinna Villari-McFarlane), Official Site, Trailer
Spiritual fulfilment meets simple-minded satisfaction in a clash of ideologies.
UK Premiere
To See if I’m Smiling (Lirot Im Ani Mehayechet)
(Country: Israel; Year: 2007; Director: Tamar Yarom)
Candid revelations about things seen and done in the Israeli military.
UK Premiere
Very Young Girls
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: David Schisgall)
An examination of young girls as they are duped, tricked and coerced into selling themselves for sex in a surprising, and people-focussed film.
UK Premiere
Paradise and Pageant
We Went To Wonderland
(Country: China, UK; Year: 2008; Director: Xiaolu Guo)
UK Premiere
'Wonderland' - an interesting nickname for the West. Xiaolu Guo's documentary of her parent's first visit to Europe from China.
War Child (Emmanuel Jal: War Child)
(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Christian Karim Chrobog; Stars: Emmanuel Jal), Official Site
A rising hip-hop star uses his music to raise awareness about his homeland’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.
UK Premiere
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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