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| A Walk Into The Sea and Taxi To The Dark Side |
9 Star Hotel (Malon 9 Kochavim)(Country: Israel; Director: Ido Haar)
lipping through the pre-dawn darkness over highways, through traffic and across the border, Palestinian construction workers go to work clandestinely in Israel everyday. Harr's raw, handheld photography follows workers who build their own border shanty community to enter Israel more easily, with no choice but to risk their lives simply to earn a living.
US Premiere. Official Site
Between Heaven And Earth (Tussen Hemel En Aarde)(Country: Netherlands; Director: Mascha Novikova, Frank van den Engel)
In the heart of the Eurasian continent, the ancient center of the world where the Silk Road connected China to Europe, the circus is a deeply rooted cultural phenomenon. This film focuses on two circus artists, whose lifelong friendship under the dictatorship in Uzbekistan is affected by the different political choices they make.
North American Premiere. Official Site
Beyond Belief(Country: US; Director: Beth Murphy)
Inspired by compassion for others whose loss they recognize as mirroring their own, two courageous women whose husbands died in the Twin Towers on 9/11 turn their grief into a catalyst for action. They travel to Kabul to help other widows, soon recognizing that the plight of the Afghan women leaves them feeling almost blessed. World Premiere.
Bomb It(Country: US; Director: John Reiss)
The story of contemporary graffiti, tracing its roots in ancient rock paintings through Picasso to its place in hip-hop culture in 1970's New York City. This kinetic documentary looks at graffiti on five continents, using guerilla footage of graffiti-writers in action. You'll never look at public space the same way again. World Premiere.
Forging A Nation (Hacer Patria)(Country: Argentina; Director: David Blaustein; Writer: Luisa Irene Ickowicz)
Accompanied by his mother, cousins, aunts and uncles, the director retraces the steps of his Jewish ancestors, who fled Europe in the 1920s hoping to find in Argentina the land of their dreams. This poignant film journey uses the documentary as a singular tool to explore the multifaceted ways in which the Argentine nation was built.
North American Premiere. Official Site
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| Miss Universe 1929 and We Are Together |
I Am an American Soldier: One Year in Iraq with the 101st Airborne(Country: UK, USA; Director: John Laurence)
This unflinching examination of the war in Iraq follows soldiers from the elite 101st Airborne Division for 14 months, from stateside preparations to their deployment in Iraq and back home again. Throughout, soldiers speak candidly about their experience in the military and demonstrate the powerful bond established as they struggle to stay alive.
World Premiere. Official Site
Miss Universe 1929 (Miss Universe 1929 - Lisl Goldarbeiter. A Queen in Wien)(Country: Austria, Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Finland; Director: Péter Forgács; Writer: Péter Forgács; Cast: Péter Forgács, Lisl Goldarbeiter, Duncan Shiels, Eszter Szász, Marci Tenczer)
Amateur filmmaker Marci Tenczer was smitten with his cousin, Liesl Goldarbeiter and chronicled her rise from a modest childhood in Vienna to the Texas competition where she was crowned the first Miss Universe. Then Hitler upended everyone's universe. Péter Forgács (Best Documentary El Perro Negro, 2005 Tribeca Film Festival) continues his fascinating exploration of Europe's private history through home movies. North American Premiere.
Planet B-Boy(Country: US; Director: Benson Lee)
A powerful documentary that's as much about community as it is about dance, Planet B-Boy shows how breakdancing unites B-Boys across political, religious and racial boundaries. Director Benson Lee layers the drama of the world championship competition with the backstories of dancers from the US, Korea, Japan and France, and discovers why they are each so committed to their art.
World Premiere. Full Review
Santiago(Country: Brazil; Director: João Moreira Salles)
In 1992, João Moreira Salles started making a film about Santiago, the butler who had been working for his parents since his childhood. 13 years later, Salles looked back at the unused material on the now deceased flamboyant servant. Through Santiago's detailed memories and erudite contemplations and the director's voice-over, the film reflects deftly on identity, memory and the nature of documentaries North American Premiere.
A Slim Peace(Country: UK; Director: Yael Luttwak)
When 14 women-Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouin Arabs, and American settlers-in the West Bank are brought together with the shared goal of losing weight, they find out they have far more in common than they ever would have imagined. A Slim Peace takes a revealing look at the universal struggle for acceptance, understanding and personal transformation in a land of intractable conflict. World Premiere.
A Story Of People In War And Peace (Mardkayin patmutyun paterazmi yev khaghaghutyan orerits)(Country: Armenia; Director: Vardan Hovhannisyan)
A deeply personal meditation on the horrors of war and its effects is shown through the eyes of Armenian journalist Vardan Hovhannisyan. Weaving together footage he shot during his country's 1994 conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh region, Hovhannisyan creates a devastating portrait of lasting damage inflicted by the battlefield. US Premiere.
The Sugar Curtain (El Telón de azúcar)(Country: France, Cuba, Spain; Director: Camila Guzmán Urzúa; Writer: Camila Guzmán Urzúa)
Guzman Urzua makes her feature documentary debut with The Sugar Curtain, an intimate portrayal of the singular experience shared by people of her generation - those living Cuba\'s utopian dream during the golden era of the revolution. It is also a lament for the end of that dream, which began to fizzle after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
US Premiere. See: Tribeca Film Festival diary: Days 4 and 5
Taxi To The Dark Side(Country: US; Director: Alex Gibney; Writer: Alex Gibney; Cast: Alex Gibney, Brian Keith Allen, Moazzam Begg, Willie Brand, George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Jack Cloonan, Damien Corsetti, Thomas Curtis, Greg D'Agostino, Carlotta Gall)
This documentary murder mystery examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver at Bagram Air Base from injuries inflicted by US soldiers. An unflinching look at the Bush administration's policy on torture, the filmmaker behind
Enron: the Smartest Guys In The Room takes us from a village in Afghanistan to Guantanamo and straight to the White House.
World Premiere. Full Review Official Site
The Tree (El Árbol)(Country: Argentina; Director: Gustavo Fontán; Writer: Gustavo Fontán; Cast: Federico Fontán, Gustavo Fontán, Julio Fontán, María Merlino)
Returning to his childhood home, filmmaker Gustavo Fontán documents his parents' deliberations over a tree planted the day he was born. Simple questions that pass between them - Is the tree dead? Should we cut it down? - become meditations on history, memory, knowledge and the sensory symphony of daily life. International Premiere.
A Walk Into The Sea (A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory)(Country: US; Director: Esther Robinson; Writer: Shannon Kennedy; Cast: Callie Angell, Brigid Berlin, John Cale, Nat Finkelstein, Gerard Malanga, Albert Maysles, Paul Morrissey, Julia Robinson, Nadia Williams)
Esther Robinson's engrossing portrait of her uncle Danny Williams-Warhol's onetime lover, collaborator and filmmaker in his own right-offers an engaging exploration of the Factory era, an homage to Williams's talent, a journey of family discovery and a compelling inquiry into Williams' mysterious disappearance at age 27.
Full Review Official Site
We Are Together (Thina Simunye)(Country: UK; Director: Paul Taylor; Writer: Slindile Moya, Paul Taylor; Cast: Children of Agape, 'Grandma' Zodwa Mqadi, Zwai, Paul Simon, Alicia Keys)
Life in an African orphanage where the children are united by a love of singing.
North American Premiere. Full Review Official Site
