Skip to main content

Sundance Film Festival · 2012

Sundance Film Festival 2012

World Cinema Documentary Competition

Twelve documentaries by some of the most courageous and extraordinary filmmakers working today.

Programme

12 films · 7 reviews

Jump to a film

5 Broken Cameras (Five Broken Cameras)

Review preview for 5 Broken Cameras

This is a deeply personal account of life in Palestine, and also one which sends out a strong political message.

Val Kermode · 4 out of 5
A Palestinian journalist chronicles his village’s resistance to a separation barrier being erected on their land and in the process captures his young son’s lens on the world.

(Country: Palestine, Israel, France; Year: 2011; Director: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi)

Full review

Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

Review preview for Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

The talking heads from the media world - PR execs, former journalists, other filmmakers - provide some of the more troubling yet fascinating insights in the documentary as to how modern corporate entities can react when they come under the spotlight.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
The story of how Dole food corporation tried to suppress a documentary about them.

(Year: 2011; Director: Fredrik Gertten; Stars: Alex Rivera, Alfonso Allende, Arvid Jurjaks, Bart Simpson, Bernt Hermele, Charlotte Lundgren, Dan Koeppel, David Magdael, Dawn Hudson, Jesper Osmund, Juan J. Dominguez, Ken Silverstein, Lars Åström, Lincoln Bandlow, Luciano Astudillo)

Full review

China Heavyweight

In central China, where a coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions, the top students face dramatic choices as they graduate – should they fight for the collective good or for themselves?

(Year: 2012; Director: Yung Chang; Writer: Yung Chang; Stars: Zongli He, Yunfei Miao, Moxiang Qi, Zhong Zhao)

Gypsy Davy

How does a white boy with Alabama roots become a Flamenco guitarist in Andalusian boots? A tale of self-invention and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of the cost to others.

(Year: 2011; Director: Rachel Leah Jones; Stars: David Serva Jones) , Official site

The Imposter

Review preview for The Imposter

A film and a story where you can't afford to be out of the conversation.

Owen Van Spall · 4 out of 5
In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappears from his home in San Antonio, Texas, but three and a half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in Spain with a shocking story of kidnap and torture... but all is not what it seems in this tale that is truly stranger than fiction.

(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Bart Layton; Stars: Anthony Zanlungo, Adam O'Brian)

Full review See: Report from Secret Cinema screening and Q&A of The Imposter

Indie Game: The Movie

Follow the dramatic journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world.

(Year: 2011; Director: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky; Stars: Jonathan Blow, Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes, Phil Fish) , Official site

The Law In These Parts

Israel's 43-year military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories unfolds through provocative interviews with the system’s architects and historical footage showing the enactment of these laws upon the Palestinian population.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2011; Director: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz)

Payback

Review preview for Payback

While the film is strong in parts... it suffers from trying to cover so much ground.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Consideration of debt based on the essays of Margaret Atwood.

(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Jennifer Baichwal; Writer: Matthew K Hacker; Stars: Kent Fields)

Full review

Putin's Kiss

Review preview for Putin's Kiss

There are complex machinations at work here - but there's always a sense of the surface being skimmed in favour of telling Drokova's story.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A leading light of Russia's nationalist youth movement, begins to question what they really stand for.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2011; Director: Lise Birk Pedersen; Stars: Oleg Kashin) , Official site

Full review

½ REVOLUTION

In January 2011, two filmmakers captured the reality of the Egyptian revolution as it occurred out of view from the world's media in the alleyways and streets away from the square – and in the process were arrested by the secret police.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2011; Director: Omar Shargawi, Karim El Hakim)

Searching For Sugar Man (Searching For Sugarman)

Review preview for Searching For Sugar Man

A delightful experience for musos and the uninitiated alike, Searching For Sugar Man deserves to reach as wide an audience as its underdog hero eventually did himself.

David Graham · 4 out of 5
The true story of a brilliant yet forgotten musician and the revolutionaries he inspired on another continent.

(Country: Sweden, UK, Finland; Year: 2012; Director: Malik Bendjelloul; Writer: Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Craig Bartholomew Strydom; Stars: Sixto Rodriguez)

Full review