Serious
questions are now being raised about the sustainability of the ?American Way of
Life.? Some scientists argue that world ?Oil Peak? and the
inevitable decline in fossil fuels are upon us now. The consequences of
inaction are enormous. What can be done now, individually and
collectively to change the way we live in community? Sunday
10am Drama Room
Changadea Forma, Brady Hanna, Rita Webster
This
Vancouver Island youth film challenges the way society and government portray and
address the issues of homelessness and poverty. Controversial even before it
was produced, the filmmakers were given the option to either remove any
?political content? from the film or lose out on its production funding from a
BC non-profit agency. They chose to fund it themselves rather than dilute their
message. Saturday 1:45pm S-207
Media Education Foundation
Hijacking Castrophe examines how a radical fringe of the Republican
Party used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing
agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil
liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush
Administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context
of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military
spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by
means of military force. Saturday
10am Drama Room
Mubasen Film & Video, Namibia; Filmmakers: Sampa Kangwa
& Simon Wilkie
Memory
is one of 75 000 street kids in Lusaka, most of them orphaned by AIDS.She has
recreated herself as a boy in order to survive.She is hard, streetw ise, and
ready to fight.Yet she has a softer side ? we see her cooking and singing with
her friends, getting her her hair braided and finding a way to watch the
eclipse.She is a compelling character of strength and vulnerability.Sunday 11:00am Room S-206
INNUVUNGA:
I am Inuk, I am Alive 58 Minutes
NFB;
Filmmakers: Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin
It?s the final year of high school
for eight teens at Innalik school in this remote town in northern Quebec.
Through an initiative of the National Film Board, these eight students have
been selected to document this pivotal year of their lives. To teach them some
basics, the NFB has dispatched filmmakers Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin. The
result of their collaboration is Innuvunga , a vibrant and utterly contemporary view of life in Canada?s North.
Seamless and startling, Innuvunga
paints a rich portrait of coming of
age in an Inuit town and helps to dispel the myths of northern isolation and
desolation. Instead, we discover a place where hope and strength overcome
struggle. Sunday 12:50pm Room S-204
INVISIBLE WARS: Depleted Uranium & The
Politics of Radiation 65 Minutes.
CANAL+
2000; Director: Martin Meissonier; Writer/Producer Robert Trilling
The
US Army's use of depleted uranium weapons destroyed enemy tanks and armorin
Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo, while minimizing casualties among US troops. But are
all the allegations about these weapons true? Documentary filmmaker Martin
Meissonnier set out to find the truth about this new and mysterious weapon in a
groundbreaking inquiry that took him from France to Germany, the United States,
Dubai, Iraq and Kosovo. Why? Because with a radioactive half-life of four and a
half billion years, the stakes involved in the proliferation of this new weapon
are enormous-for the public, and for the earth itself.Sunday 2:50pm Room S-210
NFB; Director: Lynn Glazier
It?Äôs
a Girls World is an award-winning documentary about social bullying -
specifically how girls use their power to hurt each other.
The
film takes us inside the tumultuous relationships of a clique of 10-year old
girls. Playground bullying captured on camera shows a disturbing picture of how
these girls use their closest friendships to win social power in the group,
often at the expense of someone else's feelings. With help from parents and
others , these girls learn to interact in more positive ways. The film also
tells the story of how social bullying spiraled out of control and caused the
suicide of a 14-year old girl. Sunday 1:30pm Room
S-206
Vox Veritas; Director: Alexis Fosse
Mackintosh
The
film explores the political, religious and social issues surrounding same-sex
marriage in Canada today through interviews with notable religious leaders,
human rights activists, and politicians (including MP Randy White.) Against the
backdrop of competing worldviews, the film follows three couples on their
jou
rneys of love, commitment, celebration and, of course, ma rriage.Sunday 11:00am Room S-207
Phakathi Films, South Africa;
Robin Hofmeyer
The incredible story of a 15 year-old?s journey to take
control of her life. Abandoned by her mother, even before testing positive for
HIV, Busi depends on extended family and friends. Life starts to improve when
she is chosen as a subject for a TV Documentary. After the airing on South
African TV, exposing her HIV status, Busi disappears. Worried, the filmmaker
goes looking for her. After finding Busi, the teenager lives more positively
and starts educating her peers about HIV/ AIDS in schools. Sunday, 10:00am Room S-206
Makombo Video & Research, Namibia;
Filmmaker:Kelly Kowalski
Upbeat
film with an encouraging message.Simon Elago, Master Positive, living in a
dusty township in Namibia, where Simon and fellow HIV Positive Namibians are
making low-cost papier-mache coffins.We follow Simonas he strives, through
humour and a positive outlook to overcome the social and personal consequences
of AIDS. Sunday 11:35am Room S-206
MIGHTY
TIMES: The Children?s March 50 Minutes 2004
Filmmakers: Bobby Houston and Robert
Hudson
In 1963, a group of children in
Birmingham, Alabama faced police dogs, fire hoses, and the threat of arrest to
challenge segregation in their city. This film depicts history of the civil
rights era in the United States. It is a sequel to Mighty Times: The Legacy of
Rosa Parks.
2005 Academy Award Winner for
Documentary, short subject. Sunday 12:05
Room S-206
NFB; Director:Craig Chivers
'No
Place Called Home' follows the Rice Family over the course of a year as they
move in search for affordable housing. With a photojournalist's eye, director Craig
Chivers demonstrates both humanity and stark realism as he illustrates the
desperate struggle faced by the Rices and a growing number of working poor
families across Canada. Saturday 2:55pm
Room S-207
Freewill Productions; Filmmakers:
Gerard Ungerman & Audrey Brohy
The
Oil Factor examines the link between
oil interests and recent U.S. military interventions, using original footage
shot over a four-month period in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and interviews
with many involved individuals. Various underlying motives behind the
"war-on-terror" are explored, as well as insights as to why global
terrorism continues to thrive. Sunday
12:50pm Room S-207
Buzzflash; Director: Robert Kane Pappas
A
searing insightful documentary on the political threat posed by a corporate
media aligned with a radical right wing White House. This is a must see, a
wake-up call that we have already entered an O rwellian world when history,
context, and language are redefined daily by the government, as the media
broadcasts the new version of the "truth" without question.
Saturday 11:40am Drama Room
Women Make Movies; Director: Ebtisam Mara?ana
One
of the few Arab communities remaining after the 1948 war, Paradise became
culturally and politically isolated as Jewish settlements sprung up around it,
and today it is a place defined by silence and repression. This
thought-provoking and intimate film diary offers valuable insight into the
contradictions and complexities of modern womanhood and national identity in
the Middle East. Saturday 11:35am S-207
PEANUTS
46 Minutes 200
3
McNabband
Connolly; Director: Martin Harbury The story of a film technician who, after
discovering cotton being grown in traditionally food-bearing fields in a
village in southern Mali, suggested they plant peanuts either around the cotton
plants or in rotation with cotton. The problem with peanuts is husking
them by hand. This film documents the technician?s return to Mali where he
worked with local villagers to perfect and manufacture their own peanut husker.
Peanuts is an inspiring example
of appropriate technology. Saturday
12:45pm S-207
QATUWAS 58 Minutes
QATUWAS means 'People Gathering Together'... In the l980s, Native
peoplesof the Northwest Coast embarked on an emotional voyage of
rediscovery.
Reclaiming their ancient maritime heritage, they carved
majestic canoes fromcedars that were living hundreds of years
before Europeans arrived in thePacific Northwest.Crews from thirty
First Nations then set out in l993 ona remarkable journey,
paddling hundreds of kilometers along ancientwaterways to an
historic gathering of more than three thousand people at
Bella Bella, British Columbia. Beautiful cinematography
of nature,
canoes, costumes and
masks. Saturday 11:50am S-210
Potters for Peace; Director:Francesca Roveda
Director
Francesca Roveda documents the tragedy and hope of the people of Nicaragua
through a focus on local potters. The film follows the training and
informational exchange between Nicaraguan potters and Potters for Peace, an
organization that has assisted in producing ceramic water filters as well as
developing international markets for Nicaraguan pottery. Saturday 11:00am Room S-204
NFB: Director: Chris Landreth
Ryan, directed by Chris
Landreth, is based on the life of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. Thirty years
ago, at the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan produced some of the most
influential animated films of his time. Today, Ryan lives on welfare and
panhandles for spare change in downtown Montreal. How could such an artistic
genius follow this path?
In Ryan
we hear the voice of Ryan Larkin and
people who have known him, but these voices speak through strange, twisted,
broken and disembodied 3D generated characters.Although incredibly realistic
and detailed, the film was
created and animated without the use of live action footage, rotoscoping or
motion capture...but instead from an original, personal, hand animated 3-D
world that the director calls ?Äúpsychological realism?Äù.
2005 Academy Award
Winner for Best short Animated Film Saturday
7:30PM Cinema Central and Sunday
following Story of the Weeping Camel
SCARED SACRED 110 Minutes 2004
NFB; Director: Velcrow Ripper;
Producer: Tracey Friesen
In a
world teetering on the edge of self-destruction, Velcrow Ripper sets out on a
unique pilgrimage. Visiting the 'Ground Zeros' of the planet, he asks if it's
possible to find hope in the darkest moments of human history, and to transform
the 'scared' into the 'sacred.' Ripper meets those who have suffered
first-hand, and unearths unforgettable stories of survival, ritual, resilience
and recovery.
Special
Jury Prize at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. Friday 7:30 Cinema Central
Women Make Movies;
Director: Munizae Jahangir
Search
for Freedom traces the dramatic
social and political history of Afghanistan from the 1920s to the present
through the stories of four remarkable women. Defying and clarifying the image
of Afghan women as mere victims, the film offers a nuanced portrait of women
who find choices where none are offered, who continue to find hope in the face
of exile and isolation. Sunday 11:00am Room S-210
SIN EMBARGO: Never the Less
49 Minutes 2003
Documentary Education Resources;
Director: Judith Grey
Aft
er
the revolution of 1959 and the US embargo that followed, the people of Cuba
were left to fend for themselves.Deprived of some of the most basic goods, they
scavenge the alleys and scrap heaps, giving new vitality to the discarded. Shot
entirely in Cuba, 'Sin Embargo' is a tribute to the Cuban people's optimistic
and resourceful determination to survive.
Best Documentary, Festival de Cine
de Granada, Spain 2003 Sunday
12:15 Room S-210
Director: Catherine Ann Martin
The story of Annie Mae Aquash's remarkable
life and her brutal, 1975 execution style murder. It is a moving
tribute from the women who wereclosest to her, as they celebrate
the life of a woman who inspired ageneration of First Nations
people to fight for their rights. Saturday 10:00am S-210
National Geographic World Films; Directors:
Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni
The Story of the Weeping Camel is a film that follows the adventures of a family
of herders in Mongolia's Gobi region who face a crisis when the mother camel
unexpectedly rejects her newborn calf after a particularly difficult birth.
Uniquely composed of equal parts reality, drama, and magic, this film is a
window into a different way of life and the universal terrain of the
heart. Winner, Directors? guild award for Best Documentary; 2005 Nominee,
Academy Award for Best Documentary Sunday 7pm Cinema Central
Avanti Pictures;
Director:Tony Papa
In a
time when people are thirsty for honesty, inspiration, meaning and global
change, Dr. David Suzuki delivers the most important message of his career:
what it means to be fully human in our interconnected universe. The film's
motion graphics translate Dr. Suzuki's wisdom into a complete sensory
experience, creating new worlds and new ways of seeing. Sunday 12:55pm Drama Room
NFB; Director: Avi Lewis; Writer: Naomi Klein
In
the wake of Argentina's spectacular economic collapse in 2001, suburban Buenos
Aires has become a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment.
Thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out
sleeping mats and refuse to leave. Lewis and Klein take viewers inside the
lives of ordinary visionaries as they reclaim their work, their dignity and
their democracy. A true political thriller and must see film. Saturday 3:05pmDrama Room
THIRST 62 Minutes 2004
McNabb and Connolly; Directors: Alan
Snitow and Deborah Kaufman
Is
water part of a shared "commons", a human right for all people? Or is
it a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded in a global marketplace? As water
becomes the most valuable global resource of the 21st Century, the film reveals
how the debate over water rights between communities and corporations can serve
as a catalyst for explosive and steadfast resistance to globalization. Saturday 4pm Room S-207
NFB: Director:Charles Laird
This
documentary explores how a 1960s American film series on an Inuit family living
in the remote Canadian Arctic led to a national debate between academic and conservative
forces. Director Charles Laird looks back at the high stakes of this
controversial curriculum, where two cultures came into contact with people and
traditions distinct from their own. Sunday
10:00AM Room S-204
TSOGA(Wake
Up) 8 Minutes
Newtown Films & TV School, South
Africa; Filmmaker: Sechaba Ramotoai
A
community confronts a terrible dilemma as 70% of its students test positive for
HIV.Joyce, who has been positive since she was raped 7 years ago, talks about
discrimination and dropping out of school.Her message is ultimately encouraging
and affirming.Her letter to the President describes AIDS as less dangerous than
the rejection it causes, asking that the needs of those suffering be addressed.
Sunday
11:50 S-206
THE VALUE OF LIFE: Aids in Africa Revisited
55 minutes 2004
Director: Judy Jackson
This
award winning documentary by Salt Spring Island filmmaker Judy Jackson follows Stephen
Lewis on his incredible journey?a personal voyage that led him from hope to
despair to hope again.Lewis has challenged the Canadian government to pass
legislation allowing patents to be put aside so cheaper generics can be
produced. If the legislation passes, it will make history. Sunday 1:55pm Drama Room
Director:
Christian Frei
In
this biography of a shy but committed man, director Christian Frei follows war
photographer James Nachtwey for two years into the wars in Indonesia, Kosovo,
and Palestine. "If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography
can be perceived as the opposite of war and if it is used well it can be a
powerful ingredient in the antidote to war." (James Nachtwey)
Oscar
Nomination for Best Documentary, Peabody Award, Emmy Nomination for
Cinematographer Peter Indergand. Saturday
1:45pm Drama Room
Women Make Movies; Filmmakers:
Adelaida Trujillo and Patricia Castano
As
partners in an independent media company, the filmmakers turn the cameras on
themselves to portray the tough realities of civil life from women?s
perspectives in the violent, war-ravaged country of Colombia . The film
provides insight and historical background intermingled with their own personal
family stories amid threats of violence . Powerfully intimate and often
humorous, their chronicle reveals how life goes on in Colombia-however surreal-
against the terrifying backdrop of war. Saturday
10am S-207
WILD
HORSES, UNCONQUERED PEOPLE 41 Minutes 2004
Filmwest Associates;
Filmmakers: Lionel Goddard & Susan Smitten
'Wild
Horses, Unconquered People' explores
the intriguing relationship between the Xeni Gwet'in, a tiny band of
Tsilhqot'in Indians, and the wild horses that roam B.C.'s rugged Nemiah Valley.
For the Xeni Gwet'in, the horses provide an important resource - and a powerful
icon in a century-old fight for control of their land. Sunday 3:05pm Room S-207
NFB; Director: Barry Lank
This gripping documentary chronicles the aftermath of the
atrocities that haunt East Timor by following two Canadian women who have
just joined the United Nations Civilian Police with a focus on stabilizing the
region. Combining intimate interviews, up-close footage and diary cams,
"Women on Patrol" is a riveting look at the rebuilding of a nation,
and how the experience profoundly transforms these women - as police officers
and as human beings. Saturday 4:00pm S-210
The
Yes Men 2004
United Artists;
Directed by Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price
Their motto:
Changing the world, one prank at a time. The Yes Men is the true story of how a couple of
semi-employed, middle-class (at best) activists with only thrift store clothes
and no formal economics training?posed as spokespeople for the World Trade
Organization.The film follows the ?culture jammers? as they gain world-wide
notoriety for impersonating the WTO on television and at business conferences
around the world. Saturday
7:30pm Cinema
Central