SILVERDOCS 2010

AFI-DISCOVERY CHANNEL SILVERDOCS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES SLATE

Festival Opens with FREAKONOMICS Closes with THE TILLMAN STORY

Festival Films Address War, Peace, Migration, Politics, Pop Culture and Globalization

Silver Spring, Maryland, May 27, 2010—AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival announced its full slate of films for the Festival taking place June 21-27, 2010 in the Washington, DC area. The festival will present 102 films representing 54 countries selected from 2,162 submissions with six world, one international, three North American, five US and 10 East Coast premieres, plus six retrospective films and an outdoor screening. Now in its eighth year, AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs and its concurrent International Documentary Conference honors excellence in filmmaking, supports the diverse voices and free expression of independent storytellers and celebrates the power of documentary to enhance our understanding of the world.

Films screen in five sections: Sterling US Feature Competition, Sterling World Feature Competition, Sterling Short Film Competition, Silver Spectrum and Spotlight Programs. New this year is a retrospective series of films by the Festival’s Guggenheim honoree Frederick Wiseman and a special “Peacebuilding On Screen” strand organized in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace, with select films in the program will be followed by extended panels with leading thinkers on global peacemaking.

The Festival also includes the five-day International Documentary Conference which celebrates the art and business of documentary storytelling, and creates a hothouse environment that connects filmmakers, educators, broadcasters, business leaders, distributors, private and public media, and funders from both established and emerging media markets. Two of this year’s featured speakers include a conversation with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski who will discuss FCC initiatives and their impact on media makers, and Juan Williams, noted national political correspondent and author who will address “The Power of Documentary to Engage and Enrich.” Over 1,200 filmmakers and industry professionals will join thousands of audience members to screen highly anticipated films from among the world’s leading documentarians.

“We are excited to once again celebrate the best of documentary, showcasing new work by luminaries in the documentary film world, as well as introducing new filmmakers sure to be the recognized names of the future. We are proud to present such an amazing diversity of the documentary form to our highly engaged audiences and guests from around the globe,” said Sky Sitney, Festival Artistic Director. She continued, “We are delighted to collaborate with the United States Institute of Peace this year on a special program, “Peacebuilding on Screen” where the Festival will provide a forum through which meaningful discussions and new insights on international conflict management can be achieved.”

Notable filmmakers presenting their work this year include the Festival’s Charles Guggenheim Symposium honoree, the renowned Frederick Wiseman (BASIC TRAINING, WELFARE); Amir Bar-Lev (THE TILLMAN STORY); Doug Block (THE KIDS GROW UP); Henry Corra (THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN); Christian Frei (SPACE TOURISTS); Oliver Stone (SOUTH OF THE BORDER); Alex Gibney (FREAKONOMICS); Seth Gordon (FREAKONOMICS); Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (FREAKONOMICS); Sam Green (UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS); Davis Guggenheim (WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”); Steve James (THE INTERRUPTERS); Eugene Jarecki (FREAKONOMICS); Sebastian Junger (RESTREPO); Stephen Kijak (STONES IN EXILE); Susan Koch (THE OTHER CITY); Stanley Nelson (FREEDOM RIDERS); Jose Padilha (SECRETS OF THE TRIBE); Jay Rosenblatt (THE DARKNESS OF DAY); Geoffrey Smith (PRESUMED GUILTY); Morgan Spurlock (FREAKONOMICS); Cynthia Wade (BORN SWEET) and Lucy Walker (WASTE LAND). “Also worthy of note”, Sitney added, “are the number of Nordic films in the lineup: nine features and three shorts from Sweden, Finland and Denmark. While some take us into North Korea, Japan and Peru, others take us deep into the Nordic psyche – found in saunas (STEAM OF LIFE), living rooms (LIVING ROOM OF THE NATION) and swimming pools (MEN WHO SWIM). While there is a great sense of joy, curiosity and humour in the films, there is also a strong sense of ‘Nordic Angst’ that may resonate more deeply with American audiences as we find ourselves reflecting on our own response to the sometimes angst-filled world of today.”

AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs 2010

SPOTLIGHT PROGRAMS

Monday, June 21, 2010

OPENING NIGHT: FREAKONOMICS is the highly anticipated film directed by the documentary “dream team” of Alex Gibney, Morgan Spurlock, Eugene Jarecki, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, and Seth Gordon. The riveting cinematic experience is based on the eponymous best-selling book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, which applied statistics and incentives to analyze human behaviors with surprising and controversial results.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Kick off of USIP “Peacebuilding on Screen” strand with WAR DON DON and the World Premiere of HOLYWARS, two films that explore the origins of tension and attempts at peacemaking in some of our most troubled regions.
Free outdoor screening of MICROCOSMOS (1996) directed by Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou. This fascinating documentary highlights insect-life as you’ve never seen it before using visually stunning close-ups, time-lapse photography and slow-motion effects to take the viewer inside a mysterious world.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

SPOTLIGHT FILM: SOUTH OF THE BORDER. Award-winning director Oliver Stone embarks on a road trip to five different South American countries interviewing seven South American heads of state to examine what he considers to be the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of them. Oliver Stone in attendance for post-screening panel.
CENTERPIECE SCREENING: East Coast Premiere of WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” directed by Davis Guggenheim (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, IT MIGHT GET LOUD). When we think of ‘No Child Left Behind’ we likely think of the 2001 legislation that expanded the federal role in schools and has become a controversial focal point of education policy. In Guggenheim’s epic assessment of the rise and fall of the U.S. school system, we are confronted with both sobering information and hope that education reformers may reshape education culture to truly leave no student behind.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Charles Guggenheim Symposium honors the legacy of the late four-time Academy Award winning filmmaker, Charles Guggenheim. This year the Symposium celebrates Frederick Wiseman for his body of documentary work including: TITTICUT FOLLIES, HIGH SCHOOL and BASIC TRAINING. Discussion with Wiseman moderated by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH).

Friday, June 25, 2010

WORLD PREMIERE: ON COAL RIVER. When residents of the Coal River Valley begin noticing that a host of medical problems are linked to a Massey-owned coal-waste dumping ground that sits above the local elementary school, they demand action. Saturday, June 26, 2010
SPOTLIGHT FILM: UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS. An electrifying hybrid film that explores the value of the Utopian impulse, encompassing live narration and musical accompaniment with traditional documentary and still image.
SPOTLIGHT FILM: STONES IN EXILE. It's been nearly 40 years since the Rolling Stones recorded their critically acclaimed double album Exile on Main Street. Fleeing the UK as tax exiles and taking up residence in a villa on the French Riviera rented by guitarist Keith Richards, the Stones laid to tape the music that would come to define their careers. Through extensive archival footage and the band’s own words, this great moment in rock ’n’ roll history is brought back to life by director Stephen Kijak with an immediacy and intimacy rarely seen.
WORLD PREMIERE: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN. Forty years after Pvt. McKinley Nolan vanished in Vietnam, his family learns there is hope the beloved brother, husband and father is alive and the decades-long mystery of his disappearance may be solved. (Executive Producer Danny Glover in attendance along with the Nolan Family)
CLOSING NIGHT: THE TILLMAN STORY explores the life of NFL player Pat Tillman who gave up a lucrative football contract to enlist in the military after 9/11, and his subsequent death by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Discussion following the screening with filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev and members of the Tillman family.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

SPOTLIGHT FILM: UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS. An electrifying hybrid film that explores the value of the Utopian impulse, encompassing live narration and musical accompaniment with traditional documentary and still image.
SPOTLIGHT FILM: STONES IN EXILE. It's been nearly 40 years since the Rolling Stones recorded their critically acclaimed double album Exile on Main Street. Fleeing the UK as tax exiles and taking up residence in a villa on the French Riviera rented by guitarist Keith Richards, the Stones laid to tape the music that would come to define their careers. Through extensive archival footage and the band’s own words, this great moment in rock ’n’ roll history is brought back to life by director Stephen Kijak with an immediacy and intimacy rarely seen.
WORLD PREMIERE: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN. Forty years after Pvt. McKinley Nolan vanished in Vietnam, his family learns there is hope the beloved brother, husband and father is alive and the decades-long mystery of his disappearance may be solved. (Executive Producer Danny Glover in attendance along with the Nolan Family.)
CLOSING NIGHT: THE TILLMAN STORY explores the life of NFL player Pat Tillman who gave up a lucrative football contract to enlist in the military after 9/11, and his subsequent death by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Discussion following the screening with filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev and members of the Tillman family.

SILVER SPECTRUM:

BARBERSHOP PUNK / USA, 2010, 83 minutes (Directors: Georgia Sugimura and Kristen Armfield)—Software engineer Robb Topolski became the unlikeliest hero in the “net neutrality” debate when he discovered his effort to share legal turn-of-the-century barbershop quartet music was being secretly censored. World Premiere.

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK / USA, 2010, 84 minutes (Director: Richard Press)—A mainstay of the “Sunday Styles” section of the New York Times, Bill Cunningham is constantly taking photographs for his “Evening Hours” and “On the Street” columns that showcase the fashion trends of New York City. Devoted to his work, Bill travels by bike and lives frugally in a studio that is mostly storage space for his archives, a time capsule of how we dressed.

THE DEVILLES / Denmark, 2009, 56 minutes (Director: Nicole Horanyi)—The Gearys aren't your typical suburbanites. Terri (aka Kitten DeVille) is a burlesque star and Shawn fronts an L.A. punk band. After 26 years of good times and bad, they find themselves at a pivotal moment in a complicated marriage with no certain outcome. East Coast Premiere.

FAMILY AFFAIR / USA, 2010, 80 minutes (Director: Chico Colvard)—Three sisters grow up being terrorized and sexually abused by their father on a regular basis. It isn’t until their younger brother, filmmaker Chico Colvard, accidentally injures one of them—sending her to the hospital—that the truth begins to come to light. A riveting film from first-time director Colvard, explores the complex psychology of incest.

FREEDOM RIDERS / USA, 2009, 113 minutes (Director: Stanley Nelson)—The Freedom Riders boarded interstate buses in 1961 and rode into our consciousness, risking their own lives to illustrate segregation at work in the American south. FREEDOM RIDERS vividly evokes the sense of possibility and danger of the rides, masterfully balancing archival footage with first-person accounts.

GOODBYE, HOW ARE YOU? / Serbia/Montenegro, 2009, 60 minutes (Director: Boris Mitic)—An unseen protagonist searches for opponents to challenge to a duel. The weapon: language. Specifically, the Serbian tradition of the satirical aphorism, a punchy escapade with a subversive twist deployed as a buffer against political corruption and the ravages of war. US Premiere.

GRACE, MILLY, LUCY… CHILD SOLDIERS / Canada, 2010, 73 minutes (Director: Raymonde Provencher)—Grace Akallo is one of many northern Ugandan women attempting to live a normal adulthood after being forced as children to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army, a notoriously brutal rebel group. Akallo and several others have become activists, striving to help female ex-rebels find a voice in the world, acceptance at home and forgiveness from one another. International Premiere. (Also appears in USIP “Peacebuilding on Screen’ strand.)

HIS & HERS / Ireland, 2009, 80 minutes (Director: Ken Wardrop)—This gentle and moving documentary features 70 Irish women whose years range sequentially from infancy to old age who share their unique stories of life and love with the men closest to them, whether it be fathers, boyfriends, husbands or sons.

THE INVENTION OF DR. NAKAMATS / Denmark, 2010, 57 minutes (Director: Kaspar Astrup Schtoder)—Perhaps the most famous inventor that you’ve never heard of, 80-year-old Dr. NakaMats is the brilliant and eccentric holder of the world record in patents—3,300 and counting. A cult figure in Japan, the unforgettable Dr. NakaMats is credited for the creation of the floppy disk, the first digital watch, flying “PyonPyon” shoes and “Love Jet” spray to heighten sexual stimulation.

LA ISLA—ARCHIVES OF A TRAGEDY / Germany/Guatemala, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Uli Stelzner)—Guatemala’s violent history of repression at the hands of extremist political regimes is laid bare following the discovery of a vast archive of secret police documents. As a team of dedicated forensic specialists sort through the files, the voices of the disappeared challenge the culture of impunity that plagued the nation. (Also appears in USIP “Peacebuilding on Screen’ strand.)

LAST TRAIN HOME / Canada, 2009, 87 minutes (Director: Lixin Fan)—China’s meteoric rise to economic power is brilliantly captured in this deceptively modest film that follows the story of a poor migrant couple, Changhua and Sugin Zhang, who are forced to move miles away from their rural village so that they might squeak out a living in a big-city factory.

LIVING ROOM OF THE NATION / Finland, 2009, 74 minutes (Director: Jukka Kärkkäinen)—Lives unfold with brutal intimacy in a collection of Finnish living rooms in a film balancing near-slapstick hilarity with inescapable Nordic angst. Irony mixes with pathos, dysfunction and heartfelt soul searching in a film that compels a closer look.

MAKING THE BOYS / USA, 2009, 90 minutes (Director: Crayton Robey)—In 1968, a play by Mart Crowley opened off-Broadway called The Boys in the Band featuring homosexual friends who gather for a birthday party that quickly turns ugly. No one could have guessed the impact that the small production would have on the tempestuous social climate of the 1960s. The film sheds new light on a cultural milestone now mostly forgotten. North American Premiere.

MARWENCOL / USA, 2010, 88 minutes (Director: Jeff Maimberg)—After a savage beating leaves Mark Hogancamp with near-total amnesia and severe physical injuries, he descends into a world at one-sixth scale. With no money for traditional therapy, he obsessively builds a miniature World War II-era village in his backyard and populates it with detailed dolls and Nazi intrigue.

MEN WHO SWIM / Sweden, 2010, 56 minutes (Director: Dylan Williams)—When a British man living in Sweden is on the brink of turning 40, he combats his mid-life crisis by joining a men’s synchronized swimming team. Composed of middle-aged men from all walks of life, what started as an escapist hobby evolves into a committed brotherhood as the team competes at the unofficial All Male World Championship in Milan. World Premiere.

MY SO CALLED ENEMY / USA, 2010, 87 minutes (Director: Lisa Gossels)—Filmed over a seven-year period, the film follows a group of teenage Israeli and Palestinian girls committed to mutual understanding and a just solution to the conflict that continues to rage in their homeland. World Premiere. (Also appears in USIP “Peacebuilding on Screen’ strand.)

THE OTHER CITY / USA, 2009, 93 minutes (Director: Susan Koch)—To the outside world, Washington, D.C. is a city of gleaming white monuments and powerful people. But there is another city, the one experienced by those who live here, who are in the throes of an HIV/AIDS epidemic spiraling out of control. The film chronicles the efforts of a community to save itself while showcasing the impact of poor policy, denial and apathy.

THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS / USA, 2010, 97 minutes (Director: Alexandre O. Philippe)—George Lucas couldn’t have predicted how his world of Jedi knights and an evil Empire would impact millions of fans around the world. Nor could he conceive fans reaction to his alterations to the theatrical version of STAR WARS or much-derided prequel trilogy. The film explores the complex relationship between the artist’s creation and the audience who claims it as their own. East Coast Premiere.

THE RED CHAPEL / Denmark, 2009, 87 minutes (Director: Mads Brügger)—Danish journalist and provocateur Mads Brügger arranges to take a small comedy troupe dubbed The Red Chapel to North Korea under the guise of a cultural exchange, using humor to challenge and expose one of the world’s most notorious regimes, with far more success than he anticipated.

RESTREPO / USA, 2010, 93 minutes (Directors: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington)—Armed only with cameras and a fierce commitment to present an unmediated vision of combat, journalists Sebastian Junger (THE PERFECT STORM) and Tim Hetherington fully embed themselves for a year with a platoon of U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Their unprecedented access and unflinching immediacy reveals soldiers’ experience on the battlefield in a way never seen before on screen.

RIDE, RISE, ROAR / USA, 2010, 87 minutes (Director: David Hillman Curtis)—This rare look into the creative process of the enigmatic musician David Byrne and frequent collaborator Brian Eno moves beyond “concert film” to illuminate the creative act itself, seamlessly weaving footage from conception, rehearsal and performance revealing how Byrne’s music comes into being.

SECRETS OF THE TRIBE / UK/Brazil/Venezuela, 2010, 96 minutes (Director: Jose Padiha)—Anthropology comes under the microscope in Jose Padilha’s (BUS 174) riveting ethnography about an isolated indigenous population and the scientists who study them. The Yanomami tribe of Venezuela were heralded as untouched by modern civilization until they accepted one American anthropologist into their fold, followed by many more, with shocking lapses in ethical, moral and scientific judgment.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER / USA, 2009, 78 minutes (Director: Oliver Stone)—In his new documentary, Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone embarks on a road trip to five different South American countries interviewing seven South American heads of state to examine what he considers to be the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of them. North American Premiere.

STONES IN EXILE / UK, 2010, 61 minutes (Director: Stephen Kijak)—It's been nearly 40 years since the Rolling Stones recorded their critically acclaimed double album Exile on Main Street. Fleeing the UK as tax exiles and taking up residence in a villa on the French Riviera rented by guitarist Keith Richards, the Stones laid to tape the music that would come to define their careers. Through extensive archival footage and the band’s own words, this great moment in rock ’n’ roll history is brought back to life by director Stephen Kijak with an immediacy and intimacy rarely seen.

UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS / USA, 2010, 75 minutes (Directors: Sam Green and Dave Cerf)—At the dawn of the 21st century, the Utopian impulse that fueled generations of radical thinkers and innovations (such as the Esperanto language, designed to end cultural conflict) is in a fragile state. This electrifying hybrid film encompassing live narration and musical accompaniment with traditional documentary and still image explores the value of the Utopian impulse.

WAR DON DON / Sierra Leone, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen)—Is Issa Sesay a war criminal guilty of crimes against humanity? Or a reluctant fighter who protected civilians and played a crucial role in forging peace in Sierra Leone? A trial in the United Nations’ “special court” in the heart of Freetown attempts to reveal the answer to this question. (Also appears in USIP “Peacebuilding on Screen’ strand.)

WASTE LAND / UK/Brazil, 2010, 95 minutes (Director: Lucy Walker)—As accomplished Brazilian artist Vik Muniz muses on the idea for his next project, acclaimed filmmaker Lucy Walker (THE DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT) documents his creative process. What begins as a physical journey from an art studio in Brooklyn all the way to Jardim Gramacho, a staggeringly large garbage dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, soon becomes a more profound journey of the transformative power of art.

WE DON’T CARE ABOUT MUSIC ANYWAY… / France/Japan, 2009, 80 minutes (Director: Cédric Dupire)—At the metaphorical edge of Tokyo, music crumples and the musicians are to blame. They wire themselves for sound, treat familiar instruments like cheap playthings, get lost in technology, and embrace every hiss, pop, thud, buzz and drone.

THE WOODMANS / China/Italy/USA, 2010, 82 minutes (Director: C. Scott Willis)—"There is a psychic risk in being an artist,’ says George Woodman, the patriarch of the family profiled in director C. Scott Willis" intimate portrait of a creative clan touched by tragedy. This carefully crafted film explores the continuing artistic endeavors of the family while recounting the troubled life of Francesca, whose prescient photographic work achieved acclaim decades after its creation.

USIP “PEACEMAKING ON SCREEN” STRAND

BUDRUS / Israel/Palestinian Territories/USA, 2009, 82 minutes (Director: Julia Bacha)— This rousing film about one Palestinian village and its unlikely hero—humble family man turned activist Ayed Morrar—reveals the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary change. (Also appears in Sterling World Competition.)

FOUND / Canada, 2009, 6 minutes (Director: Paramita Nath)—For Laotian-Canadian poet Souvankham Thammavongsa, a discarded scrapbook sheds light on a harsh infancy in Southeast Asia emphasizing how family memory is often an aggregation of disparate pieces. (Also appears in Sterling Short Competition.)

WISEMAN RETROSPECTIVE PROGRAM

BASIC TRAINING / 1971, 89 minutes (Director: Frederick Wiseman)—As conflict rages on in Vietnam, Wiseman follows a group of U.S. Army recruits in Fort Knox, Kentucky during the summer of 1970, observing how the men undergo a harrowing nine-week training session that tests their limits both as soldiers and as human beings.

BLIND / 1986, 132 minutes (Director: Frederick Wiseman)—The daily life and challenges of students at the Alabama School for the Blind are highlighted in Wiseman’s remarkable documentary that follows these exceptional students and faculty who rise above their challenges with dignity and strength.

CENTRAL PARK / 1989, 176 minutes (Director: Frederick Wiseman)—The unique spirit of one of New York City’s greatest landmarks is highlighted in Wiseman’s celebratory documentary CENTRAL PARK. As the park undergoes a transformative revitalization, the citizens of the city are shown utilizing all that it has to offer: skating, walking, jogging, boating, painting, skiing and playing tennis.

MODEL / 1980, 129 minutes (Director: Frederick Wiseman)—Wiseman gets an insider’s look into the exclusive modeling industry, capturing the fast-paced lives of those involved both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

SINAI FIELD MISSION / 1978, 127 minutes (Director: Frederick Wiseman)—Wiseman offers a fascinating look into a world not often seen as he profiles the diplomats and electronics technicians who operate the U.S. Sinai Field Mission, which served as a critical buffer zone between Egypt and Israel following the war in 1973.

WELFARE / 1975, 167 minutes (Director: Frederick Wiseman)—With unprecedented access to welfare workers and clients, this extraordinary documentary illustrates the realities and challenges that people involved in the system must deal with on a daily basis.

STERLING US FEATURE COMPETITION

BEYOND THIS PLACE / Switzerland, 2010, 92 minutes (Director: Kaleo La Belle)—Cloud Rock La Belle is the quintessential hippie, still living a perpetually stoned and carefree lifestyle 40 years after the ’60s ended. His son attempts to re-connect with his absentee father by taking a 500-mile bike trip together around the Pacific Northwest. US Premiere.

CAMERA, CAMERA / USA/Laos, 2009, 60 minutes (Director: Malcolm Murray)—In Laos, the digital camera is the universal sign of the tourist, but when westerners take photos in seemingly exotic locals, what are they really capturing? A snapshot of reality, or a highly-distorted caricature that reveals more about the photographer than the landscape? This poetic film invites you to reconsider what it means to be a stranger in a strange land. East Coast Premiere.

CIRCO / Mexico/USA, 2010, 75 minutes (Director: Aaron Schock)—CIRCO is an intimate look at a family’s struggle to preserve the institution of their small traveling circus in rural Mexico. At once producers, performers, and roadies, the Ponce family—the driven owner-father, his questioning wife, and their dedicated children—forms the heart of CIRCO, which explores the inner workings of the circus business as well as family sacrifice, loss of childhood, and the preservation of a fading art form. East Coast Premiere.

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN / USA/Cambodia/Vietnam, 2010, 85 minutes (Director: Henry Corra)—Forty years after Pvt. McKinley Nolan vanished in Vietnam, his family learns there is hope the beloved brother, husband and father is alive and the decades-long mystery of his disappearance may be solved. World Premiere.

HOLYWARS / UK/Spain, 2009, 72 minutes (Director: Stephen Marshall)—The film follows two deeply committed men of faith–a Muslim and a Christian–as they travel the world spreading messages they both feel represent “the truth.” What happens when the men are put in the same room? This thought-provoking film is sure to push buttons and instigate discussions about the nature of religion, extremism and tolerance. World Premiere.

THE KIDS GROW UP / USA, 2009, 91 minutes (Director Doug Block)—In his previous film, 51 BIRCH STREET, director Doug Block examined the marriage between his parents and, in particular, his relationship with his father. In this film, the second of a planned trilogy, Block explores parenting from a different vantage point, turning the camera on his daughter, and only child, Lucy as she prepares to leave for college. The result is an intimate and poignant story of a family in transition, and a father learning to let go.

MONICA AND DAVID / USA, 2009, 67 minutes (Director: Alexandra Codina)—Like many couples blissfully in love, Monica and David are getting married. Yet unlike most married couples, Monica and David have Down syndrome. The film offers an intimate glimpse into the first year of marriage for this charismatic young couple and reveals the joys and struggles that are much the same as that of any newlyweds.

MY PERESTROIKA / USA/UK/Russia, 2010, 87 minutes (Director: Robin Hessman)—The film’s intimate and heartfelt portrait of the last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain presents a complex picture of the challenges, dreams and disillusionments of this cross-over generation.

ON COAL RIVER / USA, 2010, 81 minutes (Directors: Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood)—When residents of the Coal River Valley begin noticing that a host of medical problems are linked to a Massey-owned coal-waste dumping ground that sits above the local elementary school, they demand action. World Premiere.

SONS OF PERDITION / USA, 2010, 85 minutes (Directors: Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten)—The film offers an eye-opening look into the world of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a branch of Mormonism that has continued the practice of polygamy since its emergence in the early 20th century. Far too often they exile young men, who are forced to find their way in a world previously unknown.

WO AI NI MOMMY (I LOVE YOU MOMMY) / China/USA, 2009, 76 minutes (Director: Stephanie Wang-Breal)—Eight-year-old Chinese Fang Sui Yong is adopted by a Jewish couple from Long Island who name her "Faith." The film follows Faith and her parents’ twist-and-turn journey over a year and a half. East Coast Premiere.

US Feature Jury: Steve Bognar, Filmmaker (A LION IN THE HOUSE); Michael Palmieri, Filmmaker (OCTOBER COUNTRY); Jenna Rosher, Filmmaker (JUNIOR) and Cinematographer (JESUS CAMP)

STERLING WORLD FEATURE COMPETITON

THE ARRIVALS / France/French Embassy, (2009), 111 minutes (Directors: Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard)—Arriving on the shores of France is merely the beginning of a labyrinthian journey for more than 50,000 refugees seeking asylum through the municipal reception center in Paris each year. North American Premiere.

AS LILITH / Israel, 2009, 78 minutes (Director: Eytan Harris)—After a 14-year-old Israeli girl commits suicide, her mother, Lilith, wants the body cremated. Before she can proceed, she must fight ZAKA, one of Israel’s most powerful religious organizations, which is fundamentally against cremation. East Coast Premiere.

BUDRUS / Israel/Palestinian Territories/USA, 2009, 81 minutes (Director: Julia Bacha)—This rousing film about one Palestinian village and its unlikely hero—humble family man turned activist Ayed Morrar—reveals the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary change.

FAMILIA / Sweden/Peru/Spain, 2010, 82 minutes (Directors: Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovits)—Swedish filmmaker Mikael Wiström captures the emotional ups and downs of an impoverished Peruvian family struggling to create a better life and stay together in the midst of great difficulty. US Premiere.

A FILM UNFINISHED / Germany/Israel, 2009, 87 minutes (Director: Yael Hersonski)—In never before seen footage from a lost reel of an incomplete Nazi-produced propaganda film about Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto in 1942, the film captures images of manipulated and staged ghetto life mixed with stunning photographic evidence and testimony—all making for a riveting experience.

INTO ETERNITY / Finland, (2010), 73 minutes (Director: Michael Madsen)—This film ponders how to caution explorers from future civilizations who may be driven by curiosity, or a desire to understand their distant past, to stay clear of buried nuclear waste.

PRESUMED GUILTY / Mexico, 2009, 92 minutes (Directors: Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith)—In its stunning indictment of Mexican jurisprudence, the film invites unsettling suspicion that legions of hapless prisoners face groundless decades behind bars. East Coast Premiere.

REGRETTERS / Sweden, 2010, 59 minutes (Director: Marcus Lindeen)—Mikael and Orlando are two aging Swedes with something unusual in common: They are both biological males who have undergone sex reassignment surgery but now wish to ‘change back.’ The pair’s startling testimony forms a complex philosophical interrogation of gender performance and selfhood.

SPACE TOURISTS / Switzerland, 2009, 98 minutes (Director: Christian Frei)—Amid the crumbling infrastructure of the former Soviet military space program, Russians allow civilians to travel into space for the low, low price of $20 million. Meanwhile, poor herders in Central Asia wait expectantly for the discarded remains of the rocket to sell on the black market. East Coast Premiere.

STEAM OF LIFE / Finland, 2010, 82 minutes (Director: Joonas Berghāll and Mika Hotakainen)—It’s neither a therapist’s office nor a lover’s bed where Finnish men’s deepest feelings about life, love and family are brought to the surface: It’s the sauna. The film allows the viewer to become a fly on the wall as it listens in on men—naked men—talking to other men (or occasionally a grizzly bear) in the sanctuary of the country’s ubiquitous saunas. US Premiere.

THE WOMAN WITH THE FIVE ELEPHANTS / Germany/Switzerland/Ukraine, 2009, 92 minutes (Director: Vadim Jeydrenko)—Witness to unspeakable horrors, eighty-five-year-old Svetlana Geier has dedicated her life to language. Considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German, Svetlana has just concluded her magnum opus, completing new translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels—known as the five elephants.US Premiere.

World Feature Jury: Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director, American Documentary | POV; Havana Marking, Filmmaker (AFGHAN STAR); Andrea Meditch, Executive Producer (MAN ON WIRE, GRIZZLY MAN)

STERLING SHORT COMPETITION

ALBERT’S WINTER / Denmark, 2009, 30 minutes (Director: Andreas Koefad)—A young boy in Germany struggles to deal with his mother’s devastating terminal cancer. As the illness lingers unspoken in the background, Albert goes through the motions of his day-to-day life but knows that something is terribly wrong.

ARIRANG – LETTER TO BARACK / Germany/North Korea, 2010, 8 minutes (Director: Gerd Konrad)—The world appears very different from inside the hermit kingdom of North Korea. Huge mosaics created by one hundred thousand schoolchildren holding aloft colored cards in unison are a source of national pride, but so is the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons. Pageantry and atomic blasts are juxtaposed in this chilling thought piece.

ARSY-VERSY / Slovakia, 2009, 24 minutes (Director Miro Remo)—Lubos is a happy-go-lucky 50-something who lives with his aging mother in what some would call a codependent relationship. The film takes a unique look at a mother-son relationship and the way in which Lubos lives his free-spirited life, like the title says, upside down.

BETWEEN DREAMS / Finland/France/Russian Federation, 2009, 11 minutes (Director: Iris Olsson)—A hundred souls lost in dreams in the dead of night cross a Siberian moonscape aboard a battered Russian train. A fortunate few dream happily and carefree, but most toss uneasily, gripped by fears for the future or guilt about the past.

BIG BIRDING DAY / USA, 2010, 13 minutes (Director: David Wilson)—Competitive bird watching comes alive in this delightful short. As three friends attempt to catch a glimpse of as many species as possible within the course of 24 hours, the special camaraderie that emerges between friends who enjoy the rituals of a unique hobby together is highlighted.

BORN SWEET / USA/Cambodia, 2010, 28 minutes (Director: Cynthia Wade)—Vinh, a rural Cambodian teen, dreams of falling in love, moving to the city and becoming a karaoke star. Alas, for Vinh and the millions of other children worldwide suffering from chronic arsenic poisoning, even reaching adulthood is a dream in doubt.

BYE BYE NOW / Ireland, 2009, 15 minutes (Director: Aideen O'Sullivan)—The film offers a charming look at the gradual disappearance of phone booths in Ireland. With the advent of modern technology, the phone booth has all but vanished all over the world. In a loving tribute to this soon-to-be relic of the past, the film is a nostalgic reminder of yesteryear.

CORNER PLOT / USA, 2010, 11 minutes (Director: Ian Cook)—In this heart-warming short, 89-year-old Charlie Koiner cares for a one-acre piece of farmland that rests just inside urban Washington, D.C. With help from his daughter, Charlie works the land and shares his crops at the local farmer’s market. In a rapidly changing modern world, this unique farmer remains dedicated to the life he has always known.

THE DARKNESS OF DAY / USA, 2009, 25 minutes (Director: Jay Rosenblatt)—This moving and thought-provoking meditation on depression and suicide stretches the boundaries of “documentary.” Built from found footage, and using both biographical details from Rosenblatt’s life and readings from a journal of someone who committed suicide, the film gently spurs you to ask exactly what it aims to document.

THE FAUX REAL / USA, 2010, 21 minutes (Director: Suzanne Hillinger)—This engaging short documentary introduces three biologically born females who identify as drag queens. Challenging traditional ideas of gender and drag, these unconventional women don wigs, false eyelashes, heavy makeup and chokers to perform burlesque as hyper-real representations of femme.

FLAWED / Canada, 2010, 12 minutes (Director: Andrea Dorfman)—Unfolding like a graphic novel, director and artist Andrea Dorfman illustrates her way through her unlikely pairing with a cosmetic surgeon. This animated short is a lovely meditation on falling in love, when the most trying battle is the one fought between the heart’s desires and the mind’s insecurities.

THE HERD / Ireland, 2008, 4 minutes (Director: Ken Wardrop)—One of these things is not like the other. But don’t tell that to the newest addition to the cow herd on the filmmaker’s family farm. When a little fawn finds herself out of place amid the sole company of cows, she attempts to fit in unnoticed. Can she succeed?

HOLDING STILL / Germany/USA, 2010, 26 minutes (Director: Florian Riegel)—Imagine if the last 20 years of your life were lived entirely in one room, yet you have the ability to see and photograph the world outside. This is the story of Janis, a woman whose artistic voice is remarkably unconstrained by physical obstacles or tragedies in her past.

THE HOUSEKEEPER / Scotland, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Tali Yankelevich)—The care bestowed on a venerable priest by his elderly Greek housekeeper may at first blush appear to be all in a day's work, but beneath the surface flow strong currents of platonic love and mutual need.

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK / Ireland, 2009, 12 minutes (Director: Anna Rodgers)— This haunting and visually stunning short film explores several desolate and abandoned psychiatric hospitals throughout Ireland. The voices of former long-term patients permeate the corridors, still struggling to understand the circumstances that brought them there.

I’M JUST ANNEKE / USA, 2010, 11 minutes (Director: Jonathan Skurnik)—Anneke is a 12-year-old girl who has begun taking a hormone blocker so that she can delay puberty to ultimately decide for herself whether or not she wants to grow up as a woman or a man. This thought-provoking film brings to light the choices of a new generation facing gender identity issues with remarkable sensitivity and respect.

KEEP DANCING / USA, 2010, 21 minutes (Director: Greg Vander Veer)—Well into their ninth decade of life, dance icon Marge Champion and Tony-winning choreographer Donald Saddler became fast friends while performing in the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies. Now 90, the two continue to rehearse and choreograph original work, revealing a passion for dance undimmed by the passage of time.

LAST ADDRESS / USA, 2009, 9 minutes (Director: Ira Sachs)—A series of exterior shots of buildings that all have one thing in common: they were the last residential addresses of some of New York’s most prominent artists who lost their lives to AIDS-related illnesses. This simple yet poignant short film is an elegant tribute to those remarkable people whose voices were silenced much too soon.

LIES / Sweden, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Jonas Odell)—With playful animation and lively narration, three people share their individual stories of lying, and the surprising consequences of their deception.

LISTENING TO THE SILENCES / UK, 2009, 11 minutes (Director: Pedro Flores)—What does it feel like to hear voices inside your head? Roy Vincent attempts to explain. Living alone in the isolated countryside, Vincent’s battle with mental illness is a daily struggle. This quiet, penetrating film presents a sympathetic portrait of a man accepting his inner demons.

MARIA’S WAY / Scotland/Spain, 2009, 15 minutes (Director: Anne Milne)—A feisty elderly woman’s sole purpose in life appears to be setting up an isolated roadside stand along the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrim route. A seemingly mundane daily task soon evolves into a humorous and charming observation on the importance of purpose, commitment and tradition.

MISSED CONNECTIONS / USA, 2010, 9 minutes (Director: Mary Robertson)—This delightful film is an amuse-bouche for anyone who has ever perused the ‘Missed Connections’ section of the classifieds in the hope they will recognize themselves as the ‘missed connection’ in question.

A MOTH IN SPRING / USA/Canada, 2010, 26 minutes (Director: Yu Gu)—While attempting to produce a film in China inspired by her parents’ involvement with the Student Democracy Movement of the 1980s, a young filmmaker's life and work quickly begin to parallel her parents’ trials and alienation when the film is shut down and she is ordered to leave the country.

MRS. BIRKS’ SUNDAY ROAST / UK, 2009, 6 minutes (Director: Kyoko Miyake)—This beautifully shot slice-of-life short introduces Mrs. Fukio Birks, a Japanese woman living in England with her British husband. Embracing the new life she has created, Mrs. Birks dedicates herself to embracing English culture—beginning with its cuisine. As she prepares a delectable English Sunday dinner, Mrs. Birks shares her thoughts on cooking, home, culture and family.

NOTES ON THE OTHER / Spain, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Sergio Oksman)—Ostensibly about Ernest Hemingway, this intriguing short is more a meditation on reality and simulation—like a Baudrillard lecture, except more fun. Contrasting Hemingway with his impersonators in Key West, the film questions the writer’s account of the running of the bulls, moving quickly to challenging the concept of the Real.

ON THE RUN WITH ABDUL / UK/France, 2009, 24 Minutes (Directors: James Newton, Kristian Hove Sorensen and David Lalé)—When sixteen-year-old Abdul's life is suddenly in jeopardy because of his involvement with a film on refugees, the filmmakers take it upon themselves to protect the boy. Exploring the delicate balance of how involved documentarians should become with their subjects, the film is a remarkable reassessment on the craft of non-fiction filmmaking.

OVERNIGHT STAY / USA, 2009, 9 minutes (Director: Daniela Sherer)—Using hand-drawn animation, the film illustrates an 83-year-old woman’s vivid memory of an event during World War II that likely saved her life when she was a young girl. On a cold night in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1941, she was taken in by strangers and given a place to sleep.

PARA FUERA: PORTRAIT OF DR. RICHARD J. BING / USA, 2010, 9 minutes (Director: Nicholas Jasenovec)—How could a centenarian who is an accomplished doctor and musician sum up the totality of experiences in his life in one word? Dr. Richard Bing is able to do so—and along the way you will learn what motivated and assisted him in living his challenging yet charmed life.

PLASTIC AND GLASS / France, 2009, 9 minutes (Director: Tessa Joosse)—In a recycling factory in the north of France, workers settle into the daily grind of reprocessing plastic and glass. In an effort to transcend the routine, the workers playfully adapt the steady rhythm of the machines into a melody for a song and dance.

THE POODLE TRAINER / USA/Russia, 2009, 8 minutes (Director: Vance Malone)—Irina Markova is a Russian poodle trainer who has dedicated her life to training her 20 colorfully costumed poodles to perform clever acrobatic tricks. Fueled by a childhood tragedy that sparked a fierce desire to avoid people, Markova welcomes the solace of her animals and the isolation she finds behind the red velvet curtain of the circus.

PRAYERS FOR PEACE / USA, 2009, 8 minutes (Director: Dustin Grella)—Through the use of stop-motion animation, a man reflects on the memory of his younger brother, recently killed in Iraq. This deeply personal film offers an elegant introspection about a brother and soldier whose loss is deeply felt by those who loved him.

QUADRANGLE / USA, 2010, 20 minutes (Director: Amy Grappell)—In the ’70s, two “conventional” couples embark on a most unconventional arrangement when they attempt to ward off marital ennui by swapping partners. Moving into the same home, merging families, sharing in a group marriage, can this four-way affair ever work?

SELTZER WORKS / USA, 2010, 7 minutes (Director: Jessica Edwards)—New York's last seltzer bottler makes for a refreshing subject in this effervescent look at a tradesman who refuses to compromise on taste while facing the inevitable decline of a dying commercial tradition.

THE SPACE YOU LEAVE / UK, 2009, 10 minutes (Director: James Newton)—Thoughts of their long-vanished children are never far off for several British parents whose lives seem all but consumed by overarching loss. The daunting impact of an estimated 200,000 annual disappearances in the UK is brought to scale in three gripping portraits of lives now defined by the presence of absence.

THEY ARE GIANTS / Netherlands, 2009, 13 minutes (Director: Koert Davidse)—The Bibliotheca Thurkowiana Minor is a breathtakingly beautiful old world library filled with hand-crafted leather tomes nestled in exquisite mahogany bookcases. No human has ever walked its halls, climbed its stairs, or sat at its tables because this library is no more than eight feet long and four feet high; its books no taller than your little finger.

THIS CHAIR IS NOT ME /UK, 2010, 10 minutes (Director: Andy Taylor Smith)—While cerebral palsy confines Alan Martin to a wheelchair and inhibits his speech, he refuses to limit himself. When he gains access to technology that enables him to find a voice, his life is transformed. Utilizing stunning visual vocabulary and subtle re-enactment, the film presents a cinematic experience as unique as the subject himself.

TRASH-OUT / USA, 6 minutes (Director: Maria Fortiz-Morse)—This deeply affecting and simple short shows workers cleaning out a house that has been foreclosed. What do the things left behind say about a family? What does an empty house that was once a home say? In a mere six minutes, TRASH-OUT makes a poignant statement on a timely subject.

UNEARTHING THE PEN / UK/Uganda, 2009, 12 minutes (Director: Carol Salter)— Beautifully photographed, this film poignantly tells the story of a young Ugandan boy’s desperate desire for an education in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds: most daunting is the possibility that the symbolic burying of a pen decades earlier by tribal elders has resulted in a curse on formal education.

THE VEIL / Italy, 2009, 18 minutes (Director: Mattia Colombo)—A young postulant prepares to enter the convent. Older nuns go about their quotidian routines. This intimate portrait of Franciscan sisters in a small Venetian convent reveals the vibrant lives played out beneath the subdued cloth of their vocation.

WORLD CHAMPION / Estonia, 2009, 35 minutes (Director: Moonika Siimets)—Eighty-two-year-old Herbert Sepp is a man’s man. He works out, he speaks his mind, and he knows what he wants in life: a world masters title in pole vaulting. For him, it’s all about the run, the plant… and the very, very short amount of time in the air.

Short Film Jury: Ben Fowlie, Founding Director, Camden International Film Festival; Elena Fortes, Director, Ambulante Documentary Film Festival; Aron Gaudet, Filmmaker (THE WAY WE GET BY)

June 21-27, 2010