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Leeds International Film Festival · 2008

Leeds International Film Festival 2008

Cinema Versa

"The Film Festival's home for documentaries and underground voices, mavericks and nonconformists," say those in the know. Most factual, but some fictional, the emphasis, as always, is on music.

Programme

52 films · 9 reviews

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7 Accidents, Investigating Ordinary Crashes

A look at the impact of car wrecks.

(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Alexis Taillant)

Alone In Four Walls (Allein In Vier Wänden)

Review preview for Alone In Four Walls

If this is a true representation of what Russian reform schools can achieve, it is remarkable.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4 out of 5
Inside a juvenile Russian reform school.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Alexandra Westmeier; Writer: Alexandra Westmeier)

Full review

Andrew Sharpley: Modular Films

Video collage and electronic music.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Andrew Sharpley)

Apology Of An Economic Hit Man

Documentary examining the cloak and dagger economic operations used to maintain US interests.

(Country: Greece; Year: 2008; Director: Stelios Koul)

At Second Glance - Social Club Buena Vista

Carsten Möller tracks down and re-inspires the ageing entrepreneurs from Havana’s poor Buena Vista district who organized a vibrant, essential local music scene pre-Revolution, a far cry from the international stage.

(Country: Germany, Cuba ; Year: 2008; Director: Carsten Möller)

Behave (Juizo)

Review preview for Behave

Rather than heaping condemnation on everyone involved – as you might expect – Ramos just tells it like it is.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Fly-on-the-wall look at the juvenile detention system in Brazil.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2006; Director: Maria Ramos; Stars: Luciana Fiala, Alessandro Jardim, Daniele Almeida, Guilherme de Carvalho, Isabela Duraes, Karina Lopes, Marco Aurelio Sant'ana, Wilson dos Santos)

Full review

Berlin Calling

Drama about the rise and fall of a DJ.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Hannes Stöhr; Writer: Hannes Stöhr; Stars: Paul Kalkbrenner, Rita Lengyel, Corinna Harfouch, Araba Walton, Peter Schneider, Rolf Peter Kahl, Henriette Müller, Udo Kroschwald, Megan Gay, Max Mauff)

Blood Trail

Insight into the life of war photographer Robert King, as he is traced through three different conflicts.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Richard Parry)

Carts Of Darkness

The Canadian subculture of supermarket trolley racing. Really.

(Country: Canada; Director: Murray Siple)

Chomsky And Co

Conversations with Noam Chomsky and other intellectuals.

(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Olivier Azam, Daniel Mermet)

Cyanosis (Sianoze)

Portrait of a Tehran street artist.

(Country: Iran, US; Year: 2008; Director: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami) , Official site

Daughters Of Wisdom

Tracking life in a Tibetan convent.

(Country: USA; Year: 2007; Director: Bari Pearlman)

Don't Get Me Wrong

The daily lives of patients in a Romanian psychiatric hospital.

(Country: US, Romania; Year: 2007; Director: Adina Pintilie)

Don't Try This At Home

The rise and rise of the handheld DV camera.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Matthias Maaß)

Don Roberto's Shadow

Examination of a Chilean mine that also served as a concentration camp.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2008; Director: Alakan Engstrom)

Elegies To Lessons Learnt

ILiKETRAiNS debut album, which has been animated from start to finish.

(Country: UK; Director: Ashley Dean)

The End Of Poverty?

Why is the plight of the world's poor as bad as ever?

(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Philippe Diaz; Writer: Philippe Diaz; Stars: John Christensen, William Easterly, Susan George, Chalmers Johnson, Alvaro García Lineras, John Perkins, Amartya Sen, Martin Sheen, Joseph Stiglitz, Eric Toussaint)

Examined Life

Taking philosophical ideas on to the streets to see how they resonate in practice.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2008; Director: Astra Taylor; Writer: Astra Taylor; Stars: K. Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, Michael Hardt, Martha Nussbaum, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Sunaura Taylor, Cornel West, Slavoj Zizek)

The Existence

An intimate examination of what it means to give your body away to medical science.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2008; Director: Marcin Koszalka)

Fire Under The Snow

Documentary about Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso, who spent 33 years being tortured and starved in Chinese prisons. He watched his nation ruined and his countrymen jailed or killed. Despite this, Gyatso remains unbroken, keeping the flame of his spirit ablaze.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Makoto Sasa; Stars: Palden Gyatso) , Official site

Flow: For Love Of Water

Review preview for Flow: For Love Of Water

What this film shows, by visiting communities around the world, is that issues of pollution are often intrinsically linked to issues of ownership.

Val Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Examination of the global water crisis.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Irena Salina) , Official site

Full review

Fronterismo

Investigation of life and opinions of those living near the US/Mexican border.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2008; Director: Sofie Benoot, Juan Diego Spoerer)

The Gospel Of Caesar

Examination of the theory that the gospels of Christ were, in fact, about the life of Caesar.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2007; Director: Jan Van Friesland; Writer: Francesco Carotta, Jan Van Friesland; Stars: Pope Benedict XVI, Margarete Burghalter Dienst, Francesco Carotta, Chris Entwhistle, Efthyvoulos Fonias, Paola García Bernal, Angel García Eva, Pedro García González, Gerard Janssen, Fotis Kavoukopoulos)

Gugara

Documentary charting the decline of an isolated Siberian community.

(Country: Poland; Year: 2008; Director: Andrzej Dybczak, Jacek Naglowski; Writer: Andrzej Dybczak, Jacek Naglowski)

Helvetica

A history of the world as seen through its most common typeface.

(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Gary Hustwit; Stars: Michael Bierut, Neville Brody, Dimitri Bruni, David Carson, Matthew Carter, Wim Crouwel, Tobias Frere-Jones, Otmar Hoefer, Jonathan Hoefler, Alfred Hoffmann)

Hotel Diaries

A wry examination of hotel rooms.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: John Smith)

Intimidad

The lives of a family of Mexican migrant workers.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin)

The Irish Men

Examination of the life and legacy of Irish navvies.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Phillip Donnellan)

Jesus Christ Saviour (Jesus Christus Erlöser)

Review preview for Jesus Christ Saviour

Jesus Christ Saviour is more a challenging and interesting curio for fans of Kinski and Herzog's collaborations than a movie in its own right.

Scott Macdonald · 3 out of 5
Klaus Kinski (so immortally captured in Werner Herzog's My Best Fiend) gives a showstopping performance with a defiant monologue.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Peter Geyer; Writer: Klaus Kinski; Stars: Klaus Kinski)

Full review

The Juche Idea

Review preview for The Juche Idea

Jim Finn’s awkwardly placed film is unsettling by its approach as well as its subject matter.

Chris · 3 out of 5
Deconstruction of the North Korean official state ideology.

(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Jim Finn)

Full review

La Paloma: The Melody Of Longing

The many interpretations of the famous song.

(Country: Germany France ; Year: 2008; Director: Sigrid Faltin)

Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky

Portrait of the Russian master filmmaker.

(Country: USA, Sweden, Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Dmitry Tarkovsky)

One Man In The Band

One-man bands. Showmen, eccentrics, loners. But whatever you do, don’t call them buskers.

(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Adam Clitheroe)

One Minute To Nine

Intimate portrait of marital violence.

(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Tommy Davis; Writer: Tommy Davis)

Out Of Time

Examination of the way in which small, local businesses are disappearing from the high street.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2008; Director: Harald Friedl)

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life

Review preview for Patti Smith: Dream Of Life

Some sections of the film feel like a soapbox for her to stand on, to proselytize her personal politics; to bolster her image as a radical poet.

George Williamson · 3 out of 5
Intimate portrait of the icon.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Sebring; Writer: Steven Sebring; Stars: Patti Smith) , Official site

Full review

Public Enemy: Welcome To The Terrordome

The influence of Public Enemy on modern music and culture.

(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Robert Patton-Spruill; Writer: Robert Patton-Spruill; Stars: Jonathan Davis, Chuck D, Mike D, Flavor Flav, Talib Kweli, Mix Master Mike, Tom Morello, Professor Griff, Henry Rollins, Adam Yauch)

Seaview

Life at a former Butlins holiday camp... now home to asylum seeking refugees.

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2007; Director: Nicky Gogan, Paul Rowley)

She Should Have Gone To The Moon

The story of Jerri Truhill who, in 1961, became one of the first women secretly trained by NASA to go into space.

(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Ulrike Kubatta; Writer: Ulrike Kubatta; Stars: Ulrike Kubatta, Jerri Truhill)

Sisters On The Planet

Short film and photo exhibition about four inspiring women from Brazil, Uganda, Bangladesh and the UK who are dealing with the effects of climate change and striving to make a difference in their communities.

(Year: 2008)

Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake

Part of Project Moonshine - which gives teens cameras to record events - this is a multi-faceted look at a gig by the band.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Michael Albright)

So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?

Claimed by many to be an influence on This Is Spinal Tap, this BBC doc tracks a band of rockers who never quite make the big time.

(Country: UK; Director: Mark Kidel)

Standing Up

Review preview for Standing Up

Standing Up makes Full Metal Jacket look like a fascist recruitment film.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3 out of 5
Training to kill, Afghan style, in the new American sponsored army.

(Country: Philippines/Afghanistan; Year: 2007; Director: Waise Azimi) , Official site

Full review

Style Wars/Style Wars: Revisited

Review preview for Style Wars/Style Wars: Revisited

It's hard to watch the dated hairdos and ugly early Eighties fashion and side with these kids.

Gator MacReady · 2 out of 5
Remastered 21-year-old documentary about graffiti artists in New York.

(Country: US; Year: 1983; Director: Tony Silver)

Full review

There Will Be No War

The legacy of the Bosnian conflict.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2008; Director: Daniele Gaglianone)

The Truth Be Told: The Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong

In 2005 Thai telecommunications giant Shin Corporation brought an $11-million defamation lawsuit against Supinya Klangnarong, a prominent Thai journalist, who accurately accused them of collusion with the government. The film charts her trial.

(Country: Thailand; Year: 2008; Director: Pimpaka Towira)

Who's Afraid Of Kathy Acker?

Examination of the life and times of the American 'outlaw writer'.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Barbara Caspar; Writer: Barbara Caspar)

Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Arthur Russell

Portrait of the famous cellist.

(Year: 2008)

Words Of Advice - William S Burroughs On The Road

Portrait of the beat writer.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Lars Movin, Steen Møller Rasmussen)

The Wrecking Crew

Review preview for The Wrecking Crew

This is clearly a labour of love.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Examination of the influential group of LA-based session musicians who worked alongside many of the greats, including Elvis Presley and The Byrds.

(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Denny Tedesco) , Official site

Full review

Xavante Strategy

Documentary about a Brazilian tribe who sent some of their youngsters to live in Sao Paulo in the Seventies, so that they could act as ambassadors for them and help protect their culture.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2008; Director: Belisario Franca)

Zero Bridge

A man searches for a better life... but can't stay out of trouble.

(Country: India, US; Year: 2008; Director: Tariq Tapa; Writer: Tariq Tapa; Stars: Mohamad Imran Tapa, Taniya Khan, Ali Mohammad Dar, Fahad Banday, Sebastjan Bergman, Bilal Bhat, Owaise Qayoom Bhat, Umar Rashid Dar, Towfig Ahmed Gojri, Musharraf Khan)