Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Leeds >> 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.
View other Leeds International Film Festival Films by strand: Fanomenon, KiNETIKA!, Official Selection, Rosa von Pronheim
Standing Up and Jesus Christ Saviour
7 Accidents, Investigating Ordinary Crashes
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Alexis Taillant)
A look at the impact of car wrecks.
Alone In Four Walls (Allein In Vier Wänden)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Alexandra Westmeier; Writer: Alexandra Westmeier)
Inside a juvenile Russian reform school.
Andrew Sharpley: Modular Films
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Andrew Sharpley)
Video collage and electronic music.
Apology Of An Economic Hit Man
(Country: Greece; Year: 2008; Director: Stelios Koul)
Documentary examining the cloak and dagger economic operations used to maintain US interests.
At Second Glance - Social Club Buena Vista
(Country: Germany, Cuba ; Year: 2008; Director: Carsten Möller)
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.
Alone In Four Walls and Style Wars/Style Wars: Revisited
Behave (Juizo)
(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)
Fly-on-the-wall look at the juvenile detention system in Brazil.
Berlin Calling
(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)
Drama about the rise and fall of a DJ.
Blood Trail
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Richard Parry)
Insight into the life of war photographer Robert King, as he is traced through three different conflicts.
Carts Of Darkness
(Country: Canada; Director: Murray Siple)
The Canadian subculture of supermarket trolley racing. Really.
Chomsky And Co
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Olivier Azam, Daniel Mermet)
Conversations with Noam Chomsky and other intellectuals.
Flow: For Love Of Water and The Wrecking Crew
Cyanosis (Sianoze)
(Country: Iran, US; Year: 2008; Director: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami), Official Site
Portrait of a Tehran street artist.
Daughters Of Wisdom
(Country: USA; Year: 2007; Director: Bari Pearlman)
Tracking life in a Tibetan convent.
Don't Get Me Wrong
(Country: US, Romania; Year: 2007; Director: Adina Pintilie)
The daily lives of patients in a Romanian psychiatric hospital.
Don't Try This At Home
(Country: Germany; Year: 2008; Director: Matthias Maaß)
The rise and rise of the handheld DV camera.
Don Roberto's Shadow
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2008; Director: Alakan Engstrom)
Examination of a Chilean mine that also served as a concentration camp.
Behave and The Juche Idea
Elegies To Lessons Learnt
(Country: UK; Director: Ashley Dean)
ILiKETRAiNS debut album, which has been animated from start to finish.
The End Of Poverty?
(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)
Why is the plight of the world's poor as bad as ever?
Examined Life
(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)
Taking philosophical ideas on to the streets to see how they resonate in practice.
The Existence
(Country: Poland; Year: 2008; Director: Marcin Koszalka)
An intimate examination of what it means to give your body away to medical science.
Fire Under The Snow
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Makoto Sasa; Stars: Palden Gyatso), Official Site
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.
Patti Smith: Dream Of Life and Fire Under The Snow
Flow: For Love Of Water
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Irena Salina), Official Site
Examination of the global water crisis.
Fronterismo
(Country: Belgium; Year: 2008; Director: Sofie Benoot, Juan Diego Spoerer)
Investigation of life and opinions of those living near the US/Mexican border.
The Gospel 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)
Examination of the theory that the gospels of Christ were, in fact, about the life of Caesar.
Gugara
(Country: Poland; Year: 2008; Director: Andrzej Dybczak, Jacek Naglowski; Writer: Andrzej Dybczak, Jacek Naglowski)
Documentary charting the decline of an isolated Siberian community.
Helvetica
(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)
A history of the world as seen through its most common typeface.
Berlin Calling and Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Arthur Russell
Hotel Diaries
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: John Smith)
A wry examination of hotel rooms.
Intimidad
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin)
The lives of a family of Mexican migrant workers.
The Irish Men
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Phillip Donnellan)
Examination of the life and legacy of Irish navvies.
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.
The Juche Idea
(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Jim Finn)
Deconstruction of the North Korean official state ideology.
Seaview and Cyanosis
La Paloma: The Melody Of Longing
(Country: Germany France ; Year: 2008; Director: Sigrid Faltin)
The many interpretations of the famous song.
Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky
(Country: USA, Sweden, Russia; Year: 2008; Director: Dmitry Tarkovsky)
Portrait of the Russian master filmmaker.
One Man In The Band
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Adam Clitheroe)
One-man bands. Showmen, eccentrics, loners. But whatever you do, don’t call them buskers.
One Minute To Nine
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Tommy Davis; Writer: Tommy Davis)
Intimate portrait of marital violence.
Out Of Time
(Country: Austria; Year: 2008; Director: Harald Friedl)
Examination of the way in which small, local businesses are disappearing from the high street.
Patti Smith: Dream Of Life
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Sebring; Writer: Steven Sebring; Stars: Patti Smith), Official Site
Intimate portrait of the icon.
Public Enemy: Welcome To The Terrordome
(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)
The influence of Public Enemy on modern music and culture.
Seaview
(Country: Ireland; Year: 2007; Director: Nicky Gogan, Paul Rowley)
Life at a former Butlins holiday camp... now home to asylum seeking refugees.
She Should Have Gone To The Moon
(Country: UK; Year: 2007; Director: Ulrike Kubatta; Writer: Ulrike Kubatta; Stars: Ulrike Kubatta, Jerri Truhill)
The story of Jerri Truhill who, in 1961, became one of the first women secretly trained by NASA to go into space.
Sisters On The Planet
(Year: 2008)
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.
Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Michael Albright)
Part of Project Moonshine - which gives teens cameras to record events - this is a multi-faceted look at a gig by the band.
So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?
(Country: UK; Director: Mark Kidel)
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.
Standing Up
(Country: Philippines/Afghanistan; Year: 2007; Director: Waise Azimi), Official Site
Training to kill, Afghan style, in the new American sponsored army.
Style Wars/Style Wars: Revisited
(Country: US; Year: 1983; Director: Tony Silver)
Remastered 21-year-old documentary about graffiti artists in New York.
There Will Be No War
(Country: Italy; Year: 2008; Director: Daniele Gaglianone)
The legacy of the Bosnian conflict.
The Truth Be Told: The Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong
(Country: Thailand; Year: 2008; Director: Pimpaka Towira)
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.
Who's Afraid Of Kathy Acker?
(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2007; Director: Barbara Caspar; Writer: Barbara Caspar)
Examination of the life and times of the American 'outlaw writer'.
Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Arthur Russell
(Year: 2008)
Portrait of the famous cellist.
Words Of Advice - William S Burroughs On The Road
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2008; Director: Lars Movin, Steen Møller Rasmussen)
Portrait of the beat writer.
The Wrecking Crew
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Denny Tedesco), Official Site
Examination of the influential group of LA-based session musicians who worked alongside many of the greats, including Elvis Presley and The Byrds.
Xavante Strategy
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2008; Director: Belisario Franca)
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.
Zero Bridge
(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)
A man searches for a better life... but can't stay out of trouble.
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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