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Tribeca Festival · 2012

Tribeca Festival 2012

World Documentary Feature Competition

Films in this section compete for Best Documentary Feature, Best New Documentary Director, and Best Editing.

Programme

12 films · 4 reviews

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Ballroom Dancer

Review preview for Ballroom Dancer

Bonke and Keofoed have crafted a compelling portrait that asks questions about the nature and inherent dangers of competition, ambition, sacrifice and commitment both on and off the dance floor.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A former world number one Latin dancer bids to make a comeback.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2011; Director: Christian Bonke, Andreas Koefoed; Stars: Vyacheslav 'Slavik' Kryklyvyy) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

North American premiere

Downeast

Gouldsboro, Maine. Hit hard by the closure of the sardine canning factory, its laid-off residents—mostly 70-year-olds—just want to get back to work. So why is Italian immigrant Antonio Bussone having so much trouble getting federal funds to open a new lobster processing plant? Charged with the spirit of a generation that still gives it 110 percent, this poignant and poetic documentary sheds new light on the trying task of putting America back to work.

(Year: 2012; Director: David Redmon, Ashley Sabin)

World premiere

Fame High

The drama, competition, heartbreak, and triumph among a group of struggling students at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy)

World premiere

The Flat (Hadira)

Review preview for The Flat

This story of friendship between a Jewish couple and the tabloid journalist who rose to the top of Hitler's propaganda ministry has implications that echo down the generations, at once shocking and mundane.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An Israeli man cleaning out his grandmother's flat makes a strange discovery that leads him to uncover a secret history.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2011; Director: Arnon Goldfinger; Writer: Arnon Goldfinger; Stars: Arnon Goldfinger)

Full review

North American premiere

High Tech, Low Life

With the Chinese government employing 40,000 “internet police,” more than half a million websites are blocked in the country. Local TV stations only publicise “the good news.” The rising tide of censorship has aroused a wave of citizen reporters committed to investigating local news stories and crime scenes. This timely and probing documentary tracks rogue bloggers Zola and Tiger Temple as they risk political persecution to become China’s uncensored eyes and ears.

(Country: US, China; Year: 2012; Director: Stephen Maing)

World premiere

The List

Portrait of Kirk Johnson who, after leading rebuilding teams in war-torn cities in Iraq, returned to America to establish and advocate for a growing number of Iraqi citizens now targeted by radical militias because they aided the US in the reconstruction effort.

(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Beth Murphy)

World premiere

The Revisionaries

Once in a decade, the 15 members of the Texas State Board of Education meet in Austin to revise the textbook standards for five million schoolchildren. Led by Don McLeroy, a Young-Earth Creationist and Evangelical Christian, the panel implements standards that will ultimately go into effect in science and history textbooks for schoolchildren across the nation. The Revisionaries is a galvanising peek behind the curtain at the politicisation of education.

(Year: 2012; Director: Scott Thurman) , Official site

World premiere

The Virgin, The Copts And Me (La Vierge, les Coptes et Moi)

The Virgin, The Copts And Me is a humorous fictional documentary and family-drama-cum-culture-clash set in Egypt about religion in the diaspora, the art of cinema and the boundless creativity of the filmmakers. Making good use of his mother as the film’s wonderful main protagonist, this directorial debut charmingly and wittily exposes the manipulative aspects of documentary filmmaking.

(Country: France, Qatar, Egypt; Year: 2012; Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh)

North American premiere

Wavumba

Documentary steeped in the fishermen lore of Kenya. Revisiting a childhood fairy tale of a spirit-filled island with the magic to either bless or curse a fisherman’s journey, Dutch filmmaker Jeroen van Velzen explores his memories via Masoud, a real-life legend of shark fishing. His glory days long gone, Masoud relives his youth through grandiose stories told with swaggering pride and heartbreaking nostalgia.

(Year: 2012; Director: Jeroen Van Velzen; Writer: Mohammed Masoud Muyongo, Juma Lonya Mwapitu) , Official site

North American premiere

The World Before Her

Weaving together the seemingly opposing stories of the Miss India beauty pageant and a fundamentalist Hindu camp for girls, director Nisha Pahuja illuminates the situation of women across contemporary India, drawing surprising parallels in the way women are perceived and the opportunities that are afforded them in both modernizing and traditional cultures.

(Year: 2012; Director: Nisha Pahuja; Writer: Nisha Pahuja)

World premiere