Showcasing 16 films from independent filmmakers across the globe. These are companion competitions to the Independent Cinema Documentary and Dramatic competitions which showcase a further 32 films from independent US filmmakers. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic prize was Sweet Mud, while Enemies Of Happiness took home the World Cinema Documentary gong. The Audience Dramatic Award went to Once, and the Audience Documentary to In The Shadow Of The Moon.
Experimental in form, this lush cinematic poem weaves together stories and images from twenty different cities in the state of Menas Gerais, Brazil, to reveal the fundamental role the accidental and the unpredictable play in everyday human life.
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2006; Director: Cao Guimarães, Pablo Lobato; Writer: Cao Guimarães, Pablo Lobato)
North American Premiere
Bajo Juarez, The City Devouring Its Daughters Bajo Juárez: La ciudad devorando a sus hijas
(Bajo Juárez: La Ciudad Devorando A Sus Hijas)
In an industrial town in Mexico near the US border, hundreds of women have been sexually abused and murdered. As the body count continues to rise, a web of corruption unfolds that reaches the highest levels of Mexican society.
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2006; Director: Alejandra Sánchez; Writer: José Antonio Cordero, Alejandra Sánchez)
US Premiere
Cocalero
Set against the backdrop of the Bolivian government's attempted eradication of the coca crop and oppression of the indigenous groups that cultivate it and the American war on drugs, an Aymara Indian named Evo Morales travels through the Andes and the Amazon in jeans and sneakers, leading a historic campaign to become the first indigenous president of Bolivia.
(Country: Argentina, Bolivia; Year: 2007; Director: Alejandro Landes; Writer: Alejandro Landes; Stars: Alex Contreras, Javier Escalas, Alvaro García Lineras, Evo Morales, Leonilda Zurita, , , , , , )
The clandestine life of Joseph Dresnok who, at the height of the Cold War was one of the few Americans who defected to North Korea, one of the least understood countries in the world.
(Country: UK; Year: 2006; Director: Daniel Gordon; Stars: James Dresnok, Charles Robert Jenkins, Christian Slater)
One of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time.
The surviving members of the 1968-72 Apollo missions tell the story of the moon landings in their own words.
(Country: UK, US; Year: 2007; Director: David Sington; Stars: Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Eugene Cernan, Michael Collins, Jim Lovell, Edgar D Mitchell, Harrison Schmitt, Dave Scot, John Young)
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Official site
An invitation from Joe Strummer, the Punk Rock Warlord himself, to journey beyond the myth to the heart and voice of a generation. His life, our times, his music.
(Country: Ireland, UK; Year: 2007; Director: Julien Temple; Stars: Brigitte Bardot, Bono, Steve Buscemi, Terry Chimes, John Cooper Clarke, John Cusack, Peter Cushing, Johnny Depp, Matt Dillon, Tymon Dogg, Joe Ely)
There is nothing wrong with Baichwal's camerawork, with a fascinating opening eight-minute shot of it roaming across a Chinese factory floor, particularly stunning - but everything lacks depth.
A documentarian follows photographer Edward Burtynsky as he captures the effects of industrialisation in Asia.
(Country: Canada; Year: 2006; Director: Jennifer Baichwal; Stars: Edward Burtynsky)
Review preview for The Monastery: Mr Vig And The Nun
This is a wonderful little film, a delightful portrait of two very different characters, and in some ways a meditation on the nature of faith and desire.
A documentary about an old man who discovers a new side to life when he meets a young nun.
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2006; Director: Pernille Rose Grønkjær; Stars: Sister Ambrosija, Mr. Vig)
The daily lives of four children living in an orphanage who are learning the ancient art of tightrope walking becomes a metaphor for the struggle of the Uighur's, China's largest Muslim minority, who are torn between religion and the teachings of communism.
(Country: Canada, Norway; Year: 2007; Director: Petr Lom)
North American Premiere
Three Comrades
(Drie kameraden)
The lives of three lifelong friends whose worlds are torn apart by war in Chechnya's bloody struggle for independence.
(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2006; Director: Mascha Novikova; Writer: Mascha Novikova; Stars: Islam Bashirov, Ruslan Chamchoyev, Ramzan Mezhidov)
North American Premiere
A Very British Gangster
Given his many contradictions, Dominic Noonan, head of one of Britain's biggest crime families, is a man who defies stereotypes. This close up look at his life, from gun trials to the murder of his brother on the streets of Manchester, reveals a community struggling with poverty, violence and drugs.
In a poor district of Tunisia, self-made auteur, Moncef Kahloucha, a guerilla filmmaker in the purest sense, demonstrates that it takes a village to make fun movies as he brings the power of cinema to the people.
Kurdish, Moroccan and Romanian young men migrate to Europe for a better life only to face the harsh realities and the laws of survival on the streets of a foreign land.
(Country: France; Year: 2006; Director: Bruno Ulmer; Writer: Jean-Pol Fargeau, Florent Mangeot, Bruno Ulmer)
