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Leeds International Film Festival · 2014

Leeds International Film Festival 2014

Cinema Versa

Dedicated to documentary.

Programme

36 films · 9 reviews

Jump to a film

1991: They Year Punk Broke

Sonic Youth documentary.

(Country: US; Year: 1992; Director: David Markey; Stars: Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Dinosaur Jr., Mike Johnson, J. Mascis, Murph, Babes In Toyland, Lori Barbero)

Alasdair Gray - A Life In Progress

A portrait of the artist and writer at work.

(Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Kevin Cameron; Stars: Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, Edwin Morgan)

Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!

On October 9, 2004, the Beastie Boys handed out 50 HI 8 cameras to audience members at their sold-out performance in New York's Madison Square Garden. This film is the result.

(Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Adam Yauch; Stars: Mike D, Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch, Mix Master Mike, Doug E Fresh, Money Mark, Darryl McDaniels, Alfredo Ortiz, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor)

Because I Was A Painter (Parce que j'étais peintre)

Investigation into artwork created in Nazi concentration camps.

(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2013; Director: Christophe Cognet; Writer: Christophe Cognet; Stars: Yehuda Bacon, José Fosty, Walter Spitzer, Samuel Willenberg, Krystyna Zaorska)

Brasil Bam Bam Bam: The Story Of Sonzeira

The creation of a super-group.

(Country: US, UK, Brazil; Year: 2014; Director: Charlie William Inman, Benjamin Holman; Writer: Charlie William Inman; Stars: Wilson das Neves, Seu Jorge, Ed Motta, Giles Peterson, Elza Soares, Marcos Valle)

Cartoonists - Foot Soldiers Of Democracy (Caricaturistes, Fantassins De La Démocratie)

Twelve loveable lunatics, capturing the comic and tragic in all four corners of the earth: cartoonists who risk their lives to defend democracy, with a smile on their faces and a pencil as their only weapon.

(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Stéphanie Valloatto)

The Creeping Garden

Review preview for The Creeping Garden

There’s is some intriguing material about the history of science here.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A real life science fiction story devoted to the world of myxomycetes, or fungus-like ‘slime moulds’.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Tim Grabham, Jasper Sharp; Stars: Slime moulds)

Full review

#chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on a Dictator

Review preview for #chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on a Dictator

Basatneh is a compelling presence in the film and a strong reminder that youth activism is alive and well.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Documentary about one youngster's social activism as she leads Syrian protests from her US suburban bedroom.

(Country: US, Syria; Year: 2013; Director: Joe Piscatella; Writer: Joe Piscatella)

Full review

Concerning Violence

Review preview for Concerning Violence

A collage of archival footage, carefully curated to create a provocative think piece.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An examination of colonialism.

(Country: Sweden, US, Denmark, Finland; Year: 2013; Director: Göran Olsson; Writer: Göran Olsson)

Full review

The Creator Of The Jungle (Sobre la marxa: The Creator of the Jungle)

Review preview for The Creator Of The Jungle

Arguably, the film feels the absence of the broader context of Garrell's life.

Rebecca Naughten · 3.5 out of 5
The story of a man who built his own jungle by the side of a highway, and how he rebuilt and destroyed it three times.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2014; Director: Jordi Morató; Writer: Jordi Morató; Stars: Josep Pijiula "Garrell", Ricard Ayats, Ivó Pijiula, Aleix Oliveras, Josep M.Costa, Albert Pujolar, Jordi Pujolar, David Fernández, Miquel Masdevall, Isaac Merino, Joel Vila)

Full review

Everybody Street

A documentary about the life and work of New York street photographers.

(Country: US; Year: 2013; Director: Cheryl Dunn; Stars: Boogie, Martha Cooper, Bruce Davidson)

Fatal Assistance (Assistance mortelle)

Award-winning Haitian born filmmaker Raoul Peck takes us on a two-year journey inside the challenging, contradictory, and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti.

(Country: France, Haiti, US, Belgium; Year: 2013; Director: Raoul Peck; Writer: Raoul Peck)

Fighting Down In Bethlehem

Documentary following Irish light middleweight boxer Lee Murtagh.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Ronald Wright; Writer: Ronald Wright)

Head

Psychedelic Monkees movie.

(Country: US; Year: 1968; Director: Bob Rafelson; Writer: Bob Rafelson, Jack Nicholson, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork; Stars: Peter Tork, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Victor Mature, Annette Funicello, Timothy Carey, Logan Ramsey, Abraham Sofaer, Vito Scotti, Charles Macaulay, T.C. Jones, Charles Irving, William Bagdad, Percy Helton)

Heaven Adores You

Documentary about the life and music of US singer-songwriter Elliott Smith.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Nickolas Dylan Rossi; Stars: Rossie Harris, Jon Brion, Elliott Smith, Chris Douridas, Mark Flanagan, Autumn DeWilde, Larry Crane, Kevin Moyer, Steve 'Pickle' Pickering, Dorien Garry, Pete Krebs, Aaron Espinoza, Tony Lash, Joanna Bolme, Margaret Mittleman)

Heavy Metal Parking Lot

Documentary

(Country: US; Year: 1986; Director: John Heyn, Jeff Krulik)

Showing with Led Zepplin Played Here

I Am the Gorgon: Bunny 'Striker' Lee and the Roots of Reggae

The rise of Jamaican music and the story of one of the form's most famous producers.

(Country: UK; Year: 2013; Director: Diggory Kenrick; Writer: Diggory Kenrick; Stars: Bunny Lee, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Sly Dunbar, Dennis Alcapone)

The Kids Are Alright

Documentary about rock band The Who.

(Country: UK; Year: 1979; Director: Jeff Stein; Writer: Jeff Stein; Stars: Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, Pete Townshend, Tom Smothers, Jimmy O'Neill, Russell Harty, Melvyn Bragg, Ringo Starr, Mary Ann Zabresky, Michael Leckebusch, Barry Fantoni, Jeremy Paxman, Bob Pridden, Keith Richards)

Led Zeppelin Played Here

Documentary considering an urban legend about the rock band.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Jeff Krulik; Stars: Jeff Krulik)

Showing with Heavy Metal Parking Lot

Maidan

Review preview for Maidan

Purely observational though it is, this is a film that becomes devastating in its intensity.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A documentary about the unrest in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014.

(Country: Ukraine, Netherlands; Year: 2014; Director: Sergei Loznitsa)

Full review

Manakamana

Review preview for Manakamana

The film, like the cable car, is suspended and moving constantly between two points - not the embarkment station, which gives way to the lives of the present or the exit gateway to the temple of the past - but a continuum of fact and construction.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Life in a cable car that carries pilgrims and tourists to and from a mountain top temple in Nepal.

(Country: Nepal, US; Year: 2013; Director: Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez; Stars: Pacho Velez, Stephanie Spray)

Full review

Mr. Somebody?

Tale of a Huddersfield eccentric.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Michelle Heighway)

One Rogue Reporter

An insider's exposé of the British newspaper industry.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: Rich Peppiatt, Tom Jenkinson)

Point And Shoot

Review preview for Point And Shoot

As a study of one man's narcissistic motivations, Curry's film is taut but the bigger picture remains frustratingly out of reach.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
How a naive American with OCD joined the Libyan revolution.

(Country: US; Year: 2014; Director: Marshall Curry; Writer: Marshall Curry; Stars: Matthew VanDyke)

Full review

The Possibilities Are Endless

Account of singer Edwyn Collins’ long and difficult recovery from a stroke.

(Country: UK; Year: 2014; Director: James Hall, Edward Lovelace; Stars: Edwyn Collins, William Collins, Grace Maxwell, Yasmin Paige)

Poverty, Inc.

Documentary challenging aspects of the West's attempts to alleviate poverty in the Developing World.

(Country: US, UK, Thailand, Swaziland, South Korea, South Africa, Rwanda, Russia, Peru, Kenya, Italy, Ireland,; Year: 2014; Director: Michael Matheson Miller; Writer: Michael Matheson Miller, Jonathan Witt)

Scrapyard

Documentary about a French scrapyard.

(Year: 2013; Director: Nadège Trebal )

The Second Game (Al doilea joc)

The director and his father watch a 1988 football match which the father refereed, their commentary accompanying the original television images in real time.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2014; Director: Corneliu Porumboiu; Stars: Adrian Porumboiu, Corneliu Porumboiu)

Seth's Dominion

Portrait of Canadian cartoonist Seth.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2014; Director: Luc Chamberland; Writer: Luc Chamberland; Stars: Seth)

The Silent Holy Stones

A young monk is assigned for Tibetan New Year to attend to the seven-year-old Living Buddha.

(Country: China; Year: 2005; Director: Pema Tseden; Writer: Pema Tseden)

Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Ma'a al-Fidda, Eau Argentee)

A portrait of Syria.

(Country: Syria; Year: 2014; Director: Mohammed Ossama; Writer: Wiam Bedirxan, Mohammed Ossama)

Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads concert movie.

(Country: US; Year: 1984; Director: Jonathan Demme; Writer: Jonathan Demme, Talking Heads; Stars: Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steven Scales, Lynn Mabry, Ednah Holt, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz, David Byrne)

To Hell With Culture

Documentary about English poet Herbert Read.

(Country: UK, Canada; Year: 2014; Director: Huw Wahl)

Vessel

A radical seafaring attempt to provide abortions.

(Country: US, Tanzania, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Pakistan, Netherlands, Ireland, Indonesia, Ecuador; Year: 2014; Director: Diana Whitten; Stars: Rebecca Gomperts)

What Now? Remind Me (E Agora?)

Review preview for What Now? Remind Me

Brings a sense of immediacy to events now far away in time.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
The director muses on 20 years of life with HIV.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2013; Director: Joaquim Pinto; Stars: Joaquim Pinto)

Full review