Twelve documentaries by some of the most courageous and extraordinary filmmakers working today.
The Ambassador and Payback
5 Broken Cameras (Five Broken Cameras)
(Country: Palestine, Israel, France; Year: 2011; Director: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi)
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.
The Ambassador
(Country: Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2012; Director: Mads Brügger)
What happens when a very white European man buys his way into being a diplomat in one of Central Africa's most failed nations?
Big Boys Gone Bananas!*
(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)
The story of how Dole food corporation tried to suppress a documentary about them.
China Heavyweight
(Year: 2012; Director: Yung Chang; Writer: Yung Chang; Stars: Zongli He, Yunfei Miao, Moxiang Qi, Zhong Zhao)
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?
Gypsy Davy
(Year: 2011; Director: Rachel Leah Jones; Stars: David Serva Jones),
Official Site
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.
Big Boys Gone Bananas!* and Putin's Kiss
The Imposter
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Bart Layton; Stars: Anthony Zanlungo, Adam O'Brian)
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.
Indie Game: The Movie
(Year: 2011; Director: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky; Stars: Jonathan Blow, Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes, Phil Fish),
Official Site
Follow the dramatic journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world.
The Law In These Parts
(Country: Israel; Year: 2011; Director: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz)
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.
Payback
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Jennifer Baichwal; Writer: Matthew K Hacker; Stars: Kent Fields)
Consideration of debt based on the essays of Margaret Atwood.
Putin's Kiss
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2011; Director: Lise Birk Pedersen; Stars: Oleg Kashin),
Official Site
A leading light of Russia's nationalist youth movement, begins to question what they really stand for.
The Imposter and Searching For Sugar Man
½ REVOLUTION
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2011; Director: Omar Shargawi, Karim El Hakim)
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.
Searching For Sugar Man (Searching For Sugarman)
(Country: Sweden, UK, Finland; Year: 2012; Director: Malik Bendjelloul; Writer: Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Craig Bartholomew Strydom; Stars: Sixto Rodriguez)
The true story of a brilliant yet forgotten musician and the revolutionaries he inspired on another continent.
