The Unwinking Gaze

UK, 2008
Director: Joshua Dugdale
Website

Yodok Stories

Norway,Poland; 2008; 83 min
Director: Andrzej Fidyk

Today, more than 200.000 men, women and children are locked up in North Korea's concentration camps. Systematic torture, starvation and murder is what faces the inmates. Few survive many years in the camps, but the population is kept stable by a steady influx of new persons considered to be 'class enemies'.

A small group of people have managed to flee from the camps to a new life in the prosperous South Korea. Some of them gather and decide to make an extraordinary and controversial musical about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp.

Despite death treats and many obstacles the musical becomes a tour de force for this ensemble of refugees and for them a possibility opens to talk about their experiences and inspire others to protest the existence of the camps.

Website: Yodok Stories

Children Underground

US 2001, 104 min
Director: Edet Belzberg

The film follows a group of abandoned adolescent street children who live in the Romanian subway system. The street kids are encountered daily by commuting adults, who pass them by in the station as they starve, swindle, and steal, all while searching desperately for a fresh can of paint to get high with.

A Lesson of Belorussian

Poland 2006, 51 min
Lekcia Bialoruskiego / Miroslaw Dembinski

In 1990, Belarus declared its sovereignty and a year later it announced its full independence after the collapse of the USSR. At the beginning of this period, an elite national lyceum was established in Minsk. In 1995, Alexander Lukashenko's rise to power meant the end of freedom and democracy in Belarus as well as the beginning of tough times for the lyceum. In 2003, this oasis of freedom, which fostered the cultivation of the Belorussian language, was outlawed. Neither the students nor the teachers refused to throw in the towel, however, and they illegally continued to have lessons. Moreover, they began to rebel more and more intensely. The film does not just provide engrossing testimony of the situation in a totalitarian state, but also offers proof of how young people have the power to influence their living conditions and the courage to protest against demoralizing totalitarianism.

War//Dance

USA 2006, 105 min
Directors: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine
Every year more than 20,000 schools in Uganda take part in a national music competition in which children perform the traditional music and dances of their tribes. In 2005 a school from the northern province of Patongo, torn apart by a 20–year civil war, reached the final in Kampala. An estimated two million adults and two hundred thousand children manage to just about survive in camps guarded by soldiers against rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army. This poetic picture follows children traumatised by years of conflict en route to an unexpected musical triumph. Many of them, such as Rose (13), Nancy (14) and Dominic (14), have witnessed the execution of their parents or have even been kidnapped and forced to kill by the rebels. This dramatic story reflects the universal power of music, with the help of which children from the Acholi tribe can escape the pain of war and again discover their own dignity.Its captivating visuals are underscored by a wonderful soundtrack.

War Dance

One Hundredth of a Second

UK 2006
Director: Susan Jacobson
One Hundredth of a Second
is a film about a war photographer facing the ultimate dilemma of her profession. She is forced to ask herself; if a person is in mortal danger, do you continue to do your job by taking a photograph rather than getting involved and helping?

The film is a reminder of the horror behind the images of war that face us in the media every day.

Why Democracy?

Documentaries have an unrivalled power to use human stories to make us think about much broader issues. The 10 films at the centre of Why Democracy? do just that, with filmmakers across the world taking us into the heart of their countries to explore the complex questions of modern democracy.
The Why Democracy? project began two years ago and it’s first broadcast was scheduled for October 8th 2007. It has produced some exceptional, challenging and unconventional stories. The films are unconventional documentaries in two senses. Firstly democracy - an idea - is their primary focus above any specific country or event. Secondly, they are not overtly prescriptive. These are not films by experts, about experts, telling us what “the situation is” in Iraq, or Chile, or South Africa, or Iran. These films hope to illuminate for anyone, in any country, a gnarly idea called democracy. Democracy as it exists today, not as we wish it to be.

Documentary Educational Resources

Documentary Educational Resources web site's primary purpose is to provide information about the documentary films we distribute. Secondarily, the web site provides information about our organization, services and resources on documentary filmmaking.

Some Place Like Home

US 2008
Director: Kelly Anderson
Producer: Families United for Racial & Economic Equality (FUREE)

Some Place Like Home tells the stories of community residents and small businesses that are displaced to make way for high-end retail and luxury condominiums to the area. It depicts the pulling out of Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene's legacy of being a once-forgotten neighborhood built from the ground up by generations of low-income and working families from all walks of life. Small business owners that have helped to make the area the 3rd largest retail district in New York City talk about the deferment of their dreams as entrepreneurs. It reveals practices and policies used to support massive real estate projects as the historical, economic and cultural fabric of the area is torn apart. It follows the battle of community residents and small businesses as they fight for some place like home.

Flores de Ruanda

Rwanda, Spain 2008; 24 min.
Director: David Muñoz
Production: Hibrida

Rwanda today. 14 years after the Rwandan genocide of 1994, that took away the lives of more than 800,000 people. What's the current situation of the people of Rwanda? What feelings prevail in the hearts of the victims of the Rwanda genocide? Can genocide victims and killers live together? What's the importance of education in a post-genocide society? Could films become a way of educating the people of Rwanda, and specially Rwandan children? Can a film festival make a difference? May the history of the Rwandan genocide happen again? Who should act when a genocide is taking place? Do we, as individuals, have any responsibility of stopping a genocide?
Flores de Ruanda

One World Romania on tour_Ploiesti

PLOIEŞTI – 22, 29 noiembrie / UPG Ploieşti
Sâmbăta / 29 noiembrie / 10h00

* New Year Baby - 74min.
* Low Cost 110 euros - 52min.

* Please Vote for Me - 55min.

* Cold Waves - Război pe calea undelor - 108min.

Testimony

Romania, Germany, Finland 2008;
90 min
Director: Razvan Georgescu

After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, Razvan Georgescu, the director of the film decides to undertake a voyage tracing the thin line between life and death, visiting artists who are terminally ill or who have been working on their final work of art in the hope that it will outlive or even save them. How does their work change when faced with mortality; how does one prepare for the final journey; what remains when you are gone?! The film discovers beauty in the face of one of the last social taboos, death. TESTIMONY is a film about the healing qualities of art. A roadmovie full of twists and turns but without a predetermined ending. TESTIMONY is not about watching the body surrender to disease, it is a film about vibrant life before death. It accompanies artists from around the world right until they finish their project or until they leave. Protagonists: Jorg Immendorf, Bill Viola, Harold Pinter, William Finn. Locations: Venice, New York, Timisoara, Los Angeles, Prague.

Democracy video challenge

Competitia "DEMOCRACY VIDEO CHALLENGE" invita tinerii, sustinatorii valorilor democratice, producatorii de film si publicul larg sa creeze scurt metraje care sa continue ideea "Democratia este ... " si sa le incarce pe YouTube.

Sapte castigatori (sase regionali si unul anonim) vor fi desemnati prin sistemul public de vot online al YouTube. Cei sase castigatori regionali vor beneficia de o vizita in SUA platita integral de catre organizatori, vor participa la spectacole de gala organizate la Washington, D.C., New York si Hollywood.

Aici vor avea prilejul sa intalneasca profesionisti din lumea filmului american, reprezentanti ai guvernului SUA si sustinatori ai democratiei americane din societatea civila.

Concursul este sustinut de un parteneriat care include Departamentul de Stat al SUA, organizatii de tineret si de promovare a democratiei, reprezentanti ai mediului academic, ai industriei filmului si ai mass media din Statele Unite (Center for International Private Enterprise, Directors Guild of America, International Republican Institute, International Youth Foundation, Motion Picture Association of America, NBC Universal, National Democratic Institute, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, and Taking IT Global). YouTube pune la dispozitie platforma video.
Mai multe detalii pe siteul Asociatiei Pro Democratia si Video Challenge.

Femei in umbra. Umbre

Femeile cu varste cuprinse intre 15 si 44 de ani sunt supuse unui risc mai mare sa fie abuzate decat sa se imbolnaveasca de cancer sau malarie, sa fie implicate in accidente rutiere sau razboaie.

Fondul ONU pentru Populatie si Centrul de Informare ONU in Romania vor derula, in perioada 25 noiembrie - 10 decembrie, o campanie de combatere a violentei impotriva femeii. Campania se numeste "Femei in umbra. Umbre" si va aborda problema violentei impotriva femeii din perspectiva artistica. In cadrul ei se vor viziona filme documentare si piese de teatru, care vor face cunoscute dramele unor supravietuitoare ale abuzurilor.

Filmele documentare despre violenta impotriva femeii vor rula la Cinema Union (pe 6 si 7 decembrie), la Museo Cafe (in cadrul Muzeului de Geologie, pe 1 si 9 decembrie) si la Casa ONU (2 – 4 decembrie). La aceste vizionari intrarea este libera, in limita locurilor disponibile.

Mai multe detalii:
Femei in umbra
Centrul de informare ONU
UNFPA
Responsabilitate sociala

DaKino

DaKino

Free-Will Productions

Free-Will Productions is a totally independent production company devoted to making social and political documentaries about important and controversial issues. Started in New York in 1995 by independent journalists Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy.
With the help of multi-media editor Jason Stelzel and music composer Fritz Heede, Free-Will Productions has been able to operate without any outside grants or corporate funding. As a unique example of resilience and dedication, the team relies essentially on sales and private donations to fund their on-going productions.

Free-Will is devoted to making political films focusing in great part on human-rights and the environment.

Films: “Hidden Wars of Desert Storm”, “Plan Colombia: Cashing in on the Drug-War Failure”, “The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror”.

The Devil's Miner

Bolivia, Germany, USA 2004; 84 min
Directors: Richard Ladkani, Kief Davidson

Fourteen-year-old Basilio Vargas works with his brother in the Bolivian silver mines of Cerro Rico. The mountain, into whose depths they must regularly descend, has been given the nickname the "devourer of humans" by the locals. According to estimates, several million people have died in these mines during the 450 years in which they have been in operation. Currently, there are over 5,000 miners working here, including 800 children. Everyone firmly believes that the final word about their fate is in the hands of the devil, represented by hundreds of gruesome looking statues, at whose feet the miners place various offerings every day. Basilio has already worked in the mines for four years, often for 24 hours in a row, because after the death of his father his family did not have enough money. At the same time he still tries to attend school, because he knows very well that without an education he can hardly hope to find better work.
Website

New Year Baby

USA 2006, 74 min
Director: Socheata Poeuv

For twenty years, she didn't doubt that her sisters and brother were her real siblings. When she discovered that they were in fact her cousins, she finds herself at the beginning of a quest to discover her family's past. Socheata Poeuv was born in a refugee camp beyond the Cambodian borders. Her parents had escaped there from the labour camps of the Khmer Rouge. Her cousins' parents were killed in one of these death camps. After growing up in the United States, she goes to Cambodia for the first time and travels around the country with her parents. The trip alternates between being an investigation of the past that no one wants to talk about and a tourist holiday. Surprisingly, it is during the relaxed "tourist" moments - when Socheata is not pressing her parents with questions - that her father and mother talk about what they went through.
New Year Baby

Buddha's Lost Children

Netherlands 2006, 97 min
Director: Mark Verkerk

The former successful boxer Phra Khru Bah, who is now a distinguished monk, travels around the mountainous region of northern Thailand in the inhospitable Golden Triangle area. He takes local children with him on a long journey to a faraway temple. During this pilgrimage, he shows them the positive values of living and the possibility of a way of life lived according to Buddhist ideas, which can be achieved even in adverse conditions. The documentary-maker Mark Verkerk goes on this journey with the children. He sets off on the long pilgrimage to not only find out about a recognised spiritual teacher but also to see the initiation of the new monks at close quarters. It enables you to consider how it is possible in today's chaotic times to achieve harmony in your soul.

Website

Goodbye Bafana

Belgiu 2007, 140 min.
Director:Bille August

GOODBYE BAFANA is the true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.