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306 Hollywood by Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín[/caption]
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, today announced its lineup of features and short films. The 21st annual festival will take place April 5 to 8, 2018, in Durham, North Carolina.
The NEW DOCS program includes 42 titles – 32 features and 10 shorts – selected from nearly 1,800 submissions from around the globe. These films are eligible for the Full Frame Audience Award and are shortlisted for a variety of additional juried awards offering a combined value of $40,000 in cash prizes. Award winners will be announced at the annual Awards Barbecue on Sunday, April 8. The Invited Program includes 22 feature films screening out of competition.
Renowned filmmaker Joe Berlinger will curate the 2018 Thematic Program, and the festival will honor Jehane Noujaim’s illustrious body of work with the 2018 Tribute. Delving into the fascinating genre of true crime, the Thematic Program will feature films that follow individual cases and consider the ways documentary uniquely represents the complexities, and limitations, of the American judicial system. For the Tribute, Full Frame will showcase Noujaim’s lauded films exploring themes of resilience, freedom, democracy, and free speech.
NEW DOCS
306 Hollywood
(Directors: Elan Bogarin, Jonathan Bogarin)
When their beloved grandmother dies, two siblings embark on an imaginative exploration of her home, sifting through her belongings, and their own cherished memories, to discover her essence.
América
(Directors: Erick Stoll, Chase Whiteside)
When their father is unexpectedly arrested, three brothers come together to care for their aging grandmother, América. This sensitive portrait delicately captures the frustrations and connections that evolve as they navigate her physical decline and their expectations of one another.
The Area
(Director: David Schalliol)
Charismatic activist Deborah Payne tirelessly battles developers of a new multibillion-dollar freight yard that threatens to destroy Englewood, her neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. World Premiere
The Bastard
(Director: Floris-Jan van Luyn)
The Hoeks are united in name but severed by history: Ethiopian-born Daniel and his estranged Dutch father, Joop, each tell their story, but who can be trusted in this tangled tale of regret and misdeed?
Bending Lines: The Sculpture of Robert Wiggs
(Directors: Peter DeHart, Allison Bohl DeHart)
Inspired by the geometry of nature—from the cracks in dried mud to the structure of pine cones to the scales on armadillos—Wiggs’s artistic process reveals the intriguing interplay between mathematics and art. World Premiere
The Blessing
(Directors: Hunter Robert Baker, Jordan Fein)
In this stunningly and candidly shot film, Lawrence, a Navajo coal miner, wrestles with his relationship to land to which he is spiritually bound but employed to destroy, while his daughter, Caitlin, forms her own identity amid cultural pressures. World Premiere
Cielo
(Director: Alison McAlpine)
Enter a wondrous exploration of the meeting of heaven and Earth in this dynamic exchange between humans and the starry skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Crime + Punishment
(Director: Stephen Maing)
This powerful film follows twelve brave whistleblowers who speak out against illegal policing quotas in the NYPD and the retaliation they experience after refusing to make arrests targeting minority populations.
David. The Return to Land (David. El regreso a la tierra)
(Director: Anaïs Huerta)
Haitian, French, and adopted by Jewish parents, 34-year-old David embarks on a mission to better understand who he is in this beautifully nuanced observation of self-discovery. North American Premiere
The Deminer
(Director: Hogir Hirori; Co-director: Shinwar Kamal)
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Colonel Fakhir of the Iraqi army devotes his life to disarming landmines, with only a pocket knife and wire cutters, in this deeply suspenseful film that makes use of Fakhir’s own extensive video footage. North American Premiere
A Friendship in Tow/Toe
(Director: Atsushi Kuwayama)
In the brief ascent up a flight of stairs, a pair of strangers find a rapport across languages and generations.
From Parts Unknown
(Director: Michael T. Workman)
The poignant experience of a young man who determines an unlikely outlet for his pain and hardships: In local wrestling, he finds catharsis, community, and a sense of purpose.
The Good Struggle
(Director: Celia Peterson)
Although few words are spoken between themselves, monks at a Greek Orthodox monastery in Lebanon provide voiceovers to their daily routines—their devout thoughts echo the beauty of their solitude. World Premiere
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
(Director: RaMell Ross)
Observational and impressionistic, this poetic film is a humanist exploration of an Alabama community, where mostly black, working-class families live, work, dream, celebrate, and struggle together.
I Am Bisha ( انا% ةش)
( Director: Roopa Gogineni)
As an act of pure creative resilience, Ganja and his friends film a humorous and satirical web series, Bisha TV, starring puppets to combat the violent, genocidal regime of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. World Premiere
Inventing Tomorrow
(Director: Laura Nix)
Six young scientists from around the globe compete in the largest international high school science fair—with their ingenious solutions to environmental problems, they don’t just aim to bring home the top prize, they hope to change the world.
The Issue of Mr. O’Dell
(Director: Rami Katz)
The work of Jack O’Dell, who once worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., is revealed through a conversation with the 94-year-old activist, who delves into his historical involvement in the civil rights struggle as well as the movement’s contemporary incarnation under the stewardship of groups like Black Lives Matter.
Lovers of the Night
(Director: Anna Frances Ewert)
Seven elderly monks at a Cistercian abbey in Ireland humorously muse on their spiritual experiences, way of life, and the inevitable end to it all.
Maj Doris
(Director: Jon Blåhed)
Ever-able, 74-year-old Maj Doris Rimpi is a renowned Sámi artist who lives alone in Sweden and tends to her home and herd of reindeer, but after another long winter she wonders, is it time to consider a new way of life? North American Premiere
The Mauritania Railway: Backbone of the Sahara
(Director: MacGregor)
In this expansive, gorgeously composed short, ride atop the railway car that serves as a 704- kilometer-long lifeline that supplies goods and iron ore to people in different cities in the Sahara Desert. World Premiere
MELTING SOULS (NORILSK, L’étreinte de glace)
(Director: François-Xavier Destors)
This exquisitely photographed portrait documents a remote Arctic city centered around a metal refinery, where residents endure extreme, subzero temperatures to survive on the resource that lies beneath the tundra. North American Premiere
Messenger on a White Horse (El mensajero)
(Director: Jayson McNamara)
This homage to the fearless investigative reporting of the Buenos Aires Herald during the disappearances and murders of Argentinians between 1976 and 1983, utilizes impeccable archival footage and testimonies from surviving members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo as well as lead newspaper editor Robert Cox. North American Premiere
Minding the Gap
(Director: Bing Liu)
Skateboarding and strained family relationships bond three friends together in this introspective saga about the journey from youth to adulthood.
Las Nubes
(Director: Juan Pablo González)
As a father drives through an unidentified countryside, his car becomes a space for reflection as he recounts the impact of cartel violence on his home and family.
Of Fathers and Sons
(Director: Talal Derki)
With rare and chilling insights, this film takes us into the lives of a Syrian family, led by an Al-Nusra fighter, where we observe how swiftly the innocence of childhood can fade.
Our New President
(Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin)
By turns provocative, disorienting, and astonishing, this feature weaves clips from Russian state-owned news coverage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election to portray the perils of bias, conspiracy theories, and manufactured narratives.
Owned: A Tale of Two Americas
(Director: Giorgio Angelini)
This energetic film unpacks the complex history of home ownership in America to reveal the postwar housing economy’s racist underpinnings—the creation of a large middle class simultaneous with the systematic defunding and segregating of communities. World Premiere
PATRIMONIO
(Directors: Lisa F. Jackson, Sarah Teale)
When a multinational corporation attempts to covertly develop plans to build a resort on the fishermen’s coast in Todos Santos, Mexico, the locals unite for a momentous and riveting fight for their resources and their heritage—their patrimonio. North American Premiere
Personal Truth
(Director: Charlie Lyne)
Spurred from the fake “Pizzagate” scandal, this frenetic and provocative observational film about the power of fake news suggests that conspiracy theories may be more believable than one might like to admit.
The Providers
(Directors: Laura Green, Anna Moot-Levin)
The El Centro Family Health system in northern New Mexico covers 22,000 square miles and suffers from a chronic shortage of health care providers. This film follows three dedicated practitioners in their daily work and private lives. World Premiere
The Pushouts
(Directors: Katie Galloway, Dawn Valadez)
This inspiring film follows the transformative work of Dr. Victor Rios, a former gang member and high school dropout, as he works to support students, through tools for selfreflection and expression, in an educational system that is failing to reach them. World Premiere
Rebuilding in Miniature
(Director: Veena Rao)
In this short, miniaturist Ali Alamedy, an Iraqi refugee, painstakingly creates exquisitely detailed dioramas of places he’s never been in an attempt to heal his disrupted relationship to home.
The Rescue List
(Directors: Alyssa Fedele, Zachary Fink)
In a Ghanaian safe house, a team works to rehabilitate two young men who were trafficked into slavery to fisherman on Lake Volta. As it moves from rescue operation to healing process, this riveting film follows the men through their recovery and reveals the extraordinary dedication of their rescuer.
Shirkers
(Director: Sandi Tan)
A film lover’s dream quickly turns to nightmare: Sandi Tan recounts making her first film in Singapore in 1992 and how she loses everything when her mentor, Georges Carandos, steals the footage. This unique diary is a bright ode to cinema, and a moving story of friendship, betrayal, and failure.
A Singular Garden (Um Jardim Singular)
(Director: Monica Klemz)
This experimental documentary blends old and new images of the garden next to the presidential palace in Rio de Janeiro and incorporates natural sound as a way to connect past and present. World Premiere
Sky and Ground
(Directors: Talya Tibbon, Joshua Bennett)
Incorporating a refugee family’s own footage, Sky and Ground follows a Syrian-Kurdish refugee family as they flee from a holding camp at the Greece-Macedonia border and take their chances at reaching asylum by foot on a perilous one-way trip to Berlin.
Tempting Promises (Le allettanti promesse)
(Directors: Chiara Campara, Lorenzo Faggi)
A small town tucked quietly away in the Italian Alps is chosen to host the 2016 Wikimania conference—an annual meeting of international Wikipedia contributors—and the townspeople unite to welcome the newcomers and the new technological age. North American Premiere
This Is Home
(Director: Alexandra Shiva)
Through brilliant observational filmmaking, This Is Home tells the story of four Syrian families on the path to self-sufficiency, and success, in a resettlement program in Baltimore, Maryland.
Three Identical Strangers
(Director: Tim Wardle)
A chance encounter leads three teenagers to discover that they are in fact triplets. Sharing this undeniable bond, they become fast friends and embark upon living their lives together, but the roots of their separation prove to be more sinister than they could have imagined.
Thy Kingdom Come
(Director: Eugene Richards)
A priest bears witness to the personal stories of people in a mid-American town: Heartbreak, regret, faith, resignation all resonate profoundly in this succession of exquisitely photographed scenes of intimate communion.
Time Trial
(Director: Finlay Pretsell)
Former doper and Tour de France champion David Millar is clean and ready to win the right way. This sensory ride travels alongside him for every breath, turn, and fall, through the thrills and hardships of professional cycling.
The Unafraid
(Directors: Anayansi Prado, Heather Courtney)
The gripping and vital stories of three DACA students unfold as they work for immigrant rights, and the future of their families, after being banned from attending Georgia’s top universities or receiving in-state tuition. World Premiere
Invited Program
12th and Clairmount
(Director: Brian Kaufman)
Contemporary interviews bring to life scenes from home movies, newsreels, and photographs of one of the most violent civil disturbances in U.S. history, the 1967 Detroit riot, when police brutality against African American citizens ignited a five-day standoff.
Bisbee ’17
(Director: Robert Greene)
In 1917, a strike in an Arizona mining town culminated in the exile of over a thousand immigrant workers. One hundred years later, a large-scale reenactment of the shocking events serves as a catalyst for remembrance and reflection.
Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
(Director: Sara Driver)
This portrait of the pop culture icon revisits the years before he took the art world by storm. Archival footage and intimate stories from a circle of friends, lovers, and neighbors recall both a singular talent and the New York City scene that influenced his career.
Capturing the Flag
(Director: Anne de Mare)
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, three friends travel to North Carolina to do voter protection work at the polls. This on-the-ground look at their efforts to help potential voters navigate the new laws and requirements that may prevent their vote reveals shocking accounts of voter suppression in play. World Premiere
The Cleaners
(Directors: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck)
In the Philippines, a team of “cleaners” specialize in identifying and eliminating obscene content from the internet. Their personal accounts of the pressures and personal judgements inherent in their work give way to a broader examination of the global impact of manipulating content on social media.
Dark Money
(Director: Kimberly Reed)
This modern-day political thriller follows investigative reporter John Adams into Montana’s fight against corrupt campaign financing, a struggle that could alter the devastating effects of unlimited anonymous funding on elections nationwide.
Generation Wealth
(Director: Lauren Greenfield)
For 25 years, Lauren Greenfield has documented affluence around the world. In this fascinating overview of her immense body of work, the photographer reconnects with subjects of her images to consider their relationships to money, then and now, and her own fascination with the topic.
Hal
(Director: Amy Scott)
Hal Ashby’s controversial films about race, sex, politics, and unconventional love made him a Hollywood rarity in the 1970s—a director who made films outside studio control. This loving remembrance by his peers celebrates the iconoclastic filmmaker.
The Jazz Ambassadors
(Director: Hugo Berkeley)
During the Cold War, the U.S. government deployed some of its greatest jazz musicians around the world to promote democracy, even as many of them suffered Jim Crow racism in their own country. Rich archival material and powerful interviews delve into the deep conflict at the heart of the story. World Premiere
The Judge
(Director: Erika Cohn)
Devoted to the law and unwilling to mince words, Kholoud Al-Faqih, the West Bank’s first female judge, navigates Palestine’s family court system, providing a rare glimpse into Islamic courts and gendered justice.
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story
(Director: Tiffany Bartok)
In the 1980s, Kevyn Aucoin redefined the role of the makeup artist. Home movies and recollections from family, friends, and an impressive roster of famous clients retrace his meteoric rise and his lasting impact.
Love Means Zero
(Director: Jason Kohn)
Tennis coach Nick Bollettieri trained some of the sport’s greatest champions, but his volatility and harsh methods came at a price. Conversations between director and subject revisit moments of triumph and anguish, including Bollettieri’s infamous falling out with Andre Agassi.
MAYNARD
(Director: Sam Pollard)
Interviews with family, friends, and political luminaries combine with archival footage and photographs in this captivating portrait of Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first black mayor, whose extraordinary influence spanned three terms in office.
A Murder in Mansfield
(Director: Barbara Kopple)
Twelve-year old Collier Boyle’s testimony put his father in jail for the 1989 murder of his mother. Still imprisoned more than 25 years later, the father maintains his innocence, and Boyle returns to his Ohio hometown, in this sensitive examination of reconciling with the past.
On Her Shoulders
(Director: Alexandria Bombach)
When ISIS devastates her Yazidi community, survivor Nadia Murad becomes the prevailing voice for her people. Following Murad as she recounts her harrowing experience time and again, this film intimately details the burden of imploring the world to intervene.
The Price of Everything
(Director: Nathaniel Kahn)
Moving between auction houses, collectors, artists, and coveted works, this analysis of the art market questions how we determine value, the impact of purchasing art as a form of financial investment, and the cultural implications when pieces are only available to the highest bidder.
RBG
(Directors: Betsy West, Julie Cohen)
This triumphant look at the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg revisits landmark cases and decisions, but also reveals the woman behind the robe and the personal experiences that continue to shape her legacy.
The Rape of Recy Taylor
(Director: Nancy Buirski)
In 1944, Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black woman, was abducted and raped by six white men in Alabama. The film centers on her unprecedented response—a fight for justice, with the aid of Rosa Parks and other black activists—whose profound influence on the civil rights movement still reverberates today.
Rodents of Unusual Size
(Directors: Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler, Jeff Springer)
Kill them as invasive pests destroying coastal wetlands or keep them as part of the region’s culture? In this quirky account, citizens are divided on what to do about nutria, the giant 20-pound rodents with protruding orange teeth who have made southern Louisiana their home for decades.
Solitary Land (Tierra Sola)
(Director: Tiziana Panizza)
This innovative meditation on Easter Island and its indigenous inhabitants uses historical and present-day footage to illustrate the legacy of colonial exploitation in one of the world’s most remote inhabited locales—a place of beauty, isolation, and tradition. North American Premiere
Studio 54
(Director: Matt Tyrnauer)
Rare footage transports us back in time and behind the velvet rope into the famed Manhattan disco, as a collection of insiders, including one of the co-founders, recall the rise and fall of the pioneering nightclub and iconic cultural landmark.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
(Director: Morgan Neville)
Fred Rogers revolutionized children’s television. This remarkable portrait of the visionary behind Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood reveals the origins of the groundbreaking show, the ways it connected to current events, and its impact on the lives of children, and adults, across the country.
FULL FRAME TRIBUTE Jehane Noujaim
Control Room
(Director: Jehane Noujaim)
It’s 2003, and the United States is on the brink of war with Iraq. Control Room follows journalists of the Al Jazeera satellite channel—broadcasting news to some 40 million Arab viewers—as they try to cut through American rhetoric and awaken the viewers to the realities on the ground.
Rafea: Solar Mama
(Director: Jehane Noujaim)
In this resounding global testament to the power and necessity of equal access to education, Rafea attends Barefoot College in India to become a solar engineer, learning with other women from developing areas how to create sustainable futures for their hometowns.
The Square
(Director: Jehane Noujaim)
After the 2011 Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square, citizens realize that former president Mubarak’s corrupt regime is still in power; they return to the streets to bring an end to the government, combatting controlled international media coverage, enduring violence, and navigating fragile relationships.
Startup.com
(Directors: Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim)
In the late 1990s, two high school friends attempt to turn the spark of an idea into a multimillion-dollar company. But when passion leads to tension, and the dot-com rush gives way to the dot-com bust, will they be able to deliver on their dream?
THEMATIC PROGRAM Crime and Punishment
Curated by Joe Berlinger
Brother’s Keeper
(Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky)
A murder trial ignites the small farming community of Munnsville, New York, when Delbert Ward, an eccentric and uneducated man, confesses to suffocating his brother in the isolated home they shared with two other brothers. Was the killing an act of mercy? Was Delbert’s confession coerced? In Brother’s Keeper, a surprisingly complicated story emerges.
The Farm: Angola, USA
(Directors: Liz Garbus, Jonathan Stack)
In The Farm, life at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, the largest maximumsecurity prison in the United States, is seen through the eyes of both its wardens and its prisoners—many of whom will die there—with disturbing parallels to plantation life.
Gone: The Forgotten Women of Ohio
(Director: Joe Berlinger)
After numerous women go missing, leaving their families and local law-enforcement officers with more questions than answers, this stunning series investigates whether or not a serial killer is responsible.
In Cold Blood
(Director: Richard Brooks)
Mixing elements of reality and fiction, In Cold Blood delves into the real-life murders of the Clutter family at the hands of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock in this scripted true-crime cinematic narrative based on Truman Capote’s novel.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
(Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky)
When three young boys are brutally murdered, three teenagers are accused of committing the crime as part of a satanic ritual, and are convicted by their community before they even reach the courtroom. Paradise Lost is the first film of the groundbreaking trilogy that documented the case of the West Memphis Three.
Scenes of a Crime
(Directors: Grover Babcock, Blue Hadaegh)
When a four-month-old boy dies, officers are convinced he was killed by his father, who after more than ten hours of questioning, confesses to the crime. Medical experts, police officers, and lawyers offer their opinions on this controversial admission of guilt, but the film’s focal point is the videotaped interrogation itself.
The Thin Blue Line
(Director: Errol Morris)
A man is sent to prison for shooting a Dallas police officer. The documentary questions the veracity of the verdict through interviews with detectives, lawyers, and the alleged murderer, who all paint very different accounts of events, which are represented in stunning reenactments.
Titicut Follies
(Director: Frederick Wiseman)
An intense, purely observational look at the stark conditions of inmate life in the 1960s at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane in Massachusetts.
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Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist[/caption]
The Sydney Film Festival has revealed a sneak peek of 26 new films to be featured in this year’s 65th edition of the festival, taking place from June 6th to 17th, 2018; and a new Festival location: HOYTS Entertainment Quarter.
Leading the titles is Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist. The film is a fascinating profile of revolutionary fashion designer and punk icon Vivienne Westwood from UK model-turned filmmaker Lorna Tucker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvYmFcAegH4
Also topping the list is the winner of Venice Film Festival’s 2017 Grand Jury Prize, Foxtrot, from award-winning Israeli director Samuel Maoz; and 2018 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award winner, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, featuring rising stars Chloë Grace Moretz (Carrie), Sasha Lane (American Honey) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant).
Two Oscar winners will also present their latest works: Sebastián Lelio’s (A Fantastic Woman, SFF 2017) Disobedience starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, and Debra Granik’s (Winter’s Bone) Leave No Trace featuring young New Zealand actress Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie.
Bold psychosexual thriller, Piercing, starring Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (Madame Bovary, SFF 2015), and spine-tingling British chiller Ghost Stories starring Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), kicks off the 2018 Festival’s Freak Me Out program.
Anchor and Hope also delivers more star power with Natalia Tena (Harry Potter) and Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones) alongside her mother, Golden Globe nominee Geraldine Chaplin (Chaplin), in the second feature by award-winning Spanish director Carlos Marques-Marcet (10.000 Km).
Closer to home, Australian journalist Travis Beard’s fascinating documentary RocKabul examines Afghanistan’s first metal band District Unknown, and I Used to be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story, is a coming-of-age documentary about the intense love of boybands, from The Beatles to One Direction.
Maya the Bee: The Honey Games is a new family adventure – voiced by an all-star Australian cast including Richard Roxburgh, The Umbilical Brothers’ Dave Collins and Shane Dundas, and Justine Clarke (ABC’s Play School) – from Australian animation veteran Noel Cleary (Blinky Bill).
An exhilarating debut feature from Australian director Jason Raftopoulos, West of Sunshine, starring Damien Hill (Pawno) alongside his real life step-son Ty Perham, and Kat Stewart (Offspring), will also screen in 2018.
Favorites selected from the international festival circuit include: Sundance 2018 Special Jury Prize winner, Genesis 2.0, a documentary following scientific efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth in an Arctic spin on Jurassic Park; and Berlinale Silver Bear winner, Mug, from renowned Polish filmmaker Małgorzata Szumowska.
Also highly anticipated are Oscar-nominated films: The Breadwinner and The Insult. The Breadwinner was nominated for Best Animated Feature and produced by a team of Academy Award winners including Angelina Jolie and animation studio Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea – SFF 2015). Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri’s potent legal thriller The Insult was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.
Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee American Animals stars a cast of young Hollywood talent including Evan Peters (American Horror Story) and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer).
The brand-new digital restoration, from the National Film and Sound Archive, of iconic Australian Oscar nominated film My Brilliant Career (1979) – from acclaimed director Gillian Armstrong and featuring Judy Davis in her movie debut – will revive this multiple award winner for new audiences.
Sydney Film Festival’s documentary program will again deliver the most exciting true stories about people, places, enterprises and phenomena from Australia and around the globe.
The Festival opens a window into the lives of extraordinary young people, from Chef Flynn, about prodigy chef Flynn McGarry who became one of the world’s top chefs at just 13 years old, to students finding innovative ways to tackle the most complex environmental issues facing humanity today in Inventing Tomorrow.
A light is shone in dangerous places, from the murder that made true crime an American obsession in Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders, to the life of a veteran Kurdish soldier deactivating landmines in Iraq using only a pen knife in The Deminer, to The Long Season, an intimate record of daily life for women in a Syrian refugee camp.
The Festival also features heart-warming fly-on-the-wall glimpses into personal places, such as the family castle of Spanish director Gustavo Salmeron’s eccentric mother in Lots of Kids, A Monkey and A Castle. And the roly-poly lives of five guide puppies as they train for the ultimate canine career in Pick of the Litter – also screening in Sydney Film Festival’s brand new Screen Day Out program, developed for high school students.
Interracial love, religious cults, Thai high society, and an appetite for raw offal complete a preview of the Festival’s more avant-garde works, with classic noir Samui Song from Thai auteur Pen-ek Rataranuang (Last Life In the Universe).
Flynn McGarry appears in Chef Flynn by Cameron Yates[/caption]
CHEF FLYNN
What makes a great chef? Follow teenage culinary sensation Flynn McGarry’s rapid ascent from the home kitchen to the cover of New York Times Magazine.
Bored with his mom’s dinners, and inspired by television cooking shows, young Flynn decided to take over the kitchen. At thirteen, he was serving multiple courses in his front room to friends and family, with his mother providing table service and complex equipment. As his menus became more ambitious and mouth-watering, Flynn ultimately attracted the attention of the media. It’s not all smooth sailing, however, as his talent is called into question in an online backlash. His adoring single mother, Meg, obsessively documented her son’s passion from childhood. It’s this intimate footage that offers a unique insight into the world of a culinary wunderkind, and the challenges he faces as he reaches adulthood.
COLD BLOODED: THE CLUTTER FAMILY MURDERS
A highly detailed reconstruction of the infamous Clutter family murders, which inspired Truman Capote’s bestseller In Cold Blood, directed by Oscar nominee Joe Berlinger.
In 1959, in a small town in Kansas, farmer Herbert Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their teenage children, Nancy and Kenyon, were savagely murdered. Capote visited the town, interviewed the killers (Perry Smith and Richard Hickock) and subsequently wrote his highly influential work; considered the first book in the true crime genre. Director Joe Berlinger has a history of working in this realm, with films such as Paradise Lost (SFF 1996) on the West Memphis Three. He was curious to know what the relatives and townsfolk felt about the murders and the impact of Capote’s book. The resulting documentary is a fascinating reconstruction of the case, from the backgrounds of the victims and perpetrators, to the trial, Capote’s visit and beyond.
GENESIS 2.0
Winner of a Special Jury Award at Sundance, this striking documentary connects Siberian hunters of woolly mammoth remains with cutting edge 21st century cloning technology.
Scavengers on a remote Arctic island spend the summer digging for prized mammoth tusks to sell to the Chinese market. Whole and partial skeletons of these long-extinct animals can be found in the melting permafrost. It’s not just the tusks that are valued: pioneering scientists want hair, blood or skin, so the creature’s genome can be sequenced and the beast cloned. The locals believe it’s unlucky to touch the remains, and this sense of wrongdoing permeates the film as it shifts to the biotech world, where dogs are cloned and an entire population’s genetic data is mapped. Siberian co-director Maxim Arbugaev worked with director Christian Frei (War Photographer, SFF 2002) to capture these two worlds, the boggy landscape and clinical laboratory, to chilling effect.
I USED TO BE NORMAL: A BOYBAND FANGIRL STORY
The coming of age stories of four Melbourne women whose lives were changed forever by their love of boybands Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Take That and The Beatles.
Melbourne filmmakers Jessica Leski and Rita Walsh interviewed three generations of fangirls. The women are not, as you might expect, hysterical and hormonal teenagers. They are obsessive, sure, but also insightful and vulnerable. Their ages reflect the bands they adore: the oldest of the quartet being a fan of the Fab Four. The youngest, Elif, lives at home with parents, who fail to appreciate her One Direction devotion. Sydneysider and Take That fangirl Dara can’t understand her own obsession with heartthrob Gary Barlow. Loving a boyband has helped the women through difficult times, and shaped their relationships, faith, and sexuality. Ultimately though, they’ve all found joy in the fandom world.
INVENTING TOMORROW
Enterprising high school students from Indonesia, India, Mexico and Hawaii tackle environmental issues in their own backyard, as they prepare for the world’s largest science fair.
In Bangalore, Sahithi is developing an app to track toxic water levels in neighborhood lakes. Across the globe, in one of Mexico’s most industrial cities, Jesus, Jose and Fernando are exploring ways to improve air quality. Nuha is seeking a solution to the ocean pollution affecting her Indonesian island home, and Jared is investigating arsenic levels in the soil of Hawaii. Director Laura Nix follows these inspiring, innovative and community-minded students as they develop their presentations, finding optimistic experts and fellow enthusiasts along the way.
LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE
A hugely charming portrait of a Spanish family headed by an eccentric matriarch, whose teenage dreams for lots of kids, a monkey and a castle came true.
Julita’s newly-wed wish for many children rapidly came about, and surprisingly so did her more outrageous desires. But in her old age she, her husband and six children must face reality. Their rambling home must be sold, and horde of bric-a-brac (including her grandmother’s long-misplaced remains) squeezed into a modest apartment. Gustavo intercuts old and new footage to craft a loving (and multiple award-winning) portrait of his laid-back family and its history, which cuts across Spain’s recent past from the Civil War to the financial collapse. At its core is larger-than-life Julita; alternately questioning the premise of her youngest son’s film and swooping on treasured knickknacks.
PICK OF THE LITTER
We follow the two-year journey, from birth through training to graduation, of five cute but determined Labrador puppies, destined to become guide dogs for the blind.
At eight weeks old, a litter of puppies is distributed to volunteer ‘puppy raisers’ responsible for training and socializing the dogs. Some handlers are experienced and others nervous first-timers. The pups are an equally mixed bag – two girls, three boys, black and golden, rowdy and shy. They are evaluated throughout their growing years, before starting an intensive training course. We also meet two people with low vision, waiting patiently for a new dog. The film demonstrates the independence that guide dogs can provide as it delves into the dog-human affinity.
ROCKABUL
Australian musician, journalist and debut director Travis Beard chronicles Afghanistan’s only metal band as they take to the stage, risking their lives for rock music.
When Beard met District Unknown back in 2009, Kabul’s fiercely conservative and traditional community frowned upon music, and the underground party scene was for expats only. The four, later five, young Afghan men in the band could barely find instruments, let alone a rehearsal space. Practice sessions were interrupted by power cuts and exploding bombs. Nonetheless, the musicians persevered, excitedly performing their first gig to an audience as much at risk as the band themselves. But as their notoriety grew, Qasem, Pedram, Qais, Lemar and Yousef had to choose whether to stay or go, knuckle under or keep rockin’.
THE DEMINER
The Deminer is an edge-of-your-seat portrait of a bomb disposal expert in Iraq. Winner of a Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
Colonel Fakhir is committed to making his homeland a safer place for everyone, but he has very few tools to help in this hazardous task. He tackles booby traps and mines with a penknife and garden pliers, even his bare hands. Watching our hero stride into the danger zone is the stuff of action movies: the clock ticking, the mobile phone detonator primed. Fakhir shot much of the nerve-wracking footage himself. A Kurdish man serving in the Iraqi army and a loving father of eight, Fakhir’s successful ‘de- mining’ makes him an Al-Qaeda target. Despite this hefty threat, he doggedly continues, as his family waits in fear and pride.
THE LONG SEASON
Multi-award-winning filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich (Shape of the Moon, Position Among the Stars, SFF 2011) focuses his camera lens on life in a Syrian refugee camp.
Just across the border from Syria, Majdal Anjar in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley is a sprawling, ramshackle collection of shelters. Helmrich spent over a year there filming, with his female collaborator Ramia Suleiman, steadily gaining the trust of his subjects. The duo filmed mothers battling to keep their children fed, clothed and educated, bickering wives and husbands, and young women bemoaning their loss of freedom. With his trademark single shot technique (utilising fluid camera movements to shoot a scene in one take), Helmrich captures the resilience of the refugees with tenderness and compassion, particularly the womenfolk, as they face an uncertain future.
WESTWOOD: PUNK, ICON, ACTIVIST
The wonderfully eccentric, endlessly inventive Vivienne Westwood is the reluctant star of this fabulous documentary.
The British fashion designer stomped into the limelight in ’70s London, when the Sex Pistols (managed by her then-husband Malcolm McLaren) sported her designs. Over the decades, Westwood’s aberrant focus has shifted from punk to eco-activism. Her working life, chaotic creative process and close collaboration with her third husband – the endlessly patient Andreas – is revealed through archival footage and interviews. Long shunned by the establishment, in 1992 she was awarded an OBE for services to fashion (true to form, she attended the Buckingham Palace ceremony knicker-less). Straight talking Dame Vivienne considers her history to be “so boring”, but in this she’s wrong: there’s loads to entertain in Lorna Tucker’s fine documentary.
American Animals[/caption]
AMERICAN ANIMALS
Bart Layton’s (The Imposter, SFF 2012) first feature is a wildly entertaining docu-fiction hybrid about four young men who attempt one of the most audacious art-heists in history.
American Animals is an unbelievable but true story of four college students who are determined to transcend their boring middle class existence. They hatch a plot to pull off an incredible heist: stealing a number of incredibly valuable volumes from their college’s under-protected rare books collection. Using a great cast of young talents like Barry Keoghan and Blake Jenner, Layton’s brilliant strategy is to also incorporate the four actual subjects into the film. Older, and perhaps wiser, these four men reflect on their past misdeeds, frequently contradicting each other in their Rashomon-like testimonies. Quite unlike any other heist film, American Animals is an energetic, boundary-pushing thriller.
ANCHOR AND HOPE
A lesbian couple contemplate parenthood in a funny and free-wheeling comic drama by rising Spanish filmmaker Carlos Marques-Marcet.
Eva and Kat live a happy life in a houseboat on England’s Regent Canal, until the thorny question of parenthood comes up. Eva desperately wants to be a mother. Kat thinks procreation is narcissistic. But wait, perhaps there’s an answer. Kat’s lifelong bestie, Roger, is coming to visit. Could this randy womanizer be the ideal sperm donor? So begins a fresh and funny tale about love, friendship and the different ways in which modern families can take shape. This hugely entertaining slice of alternative life features wonderful performances by Oona Chaplin (Game of Thrones), Natalia Tena and David Verdaguer. A delightful and insightful cameo by Oona’s real-life mother Geraldine Chaplin tops things off very nicely.
DISOBEDIENCE
Oscar-winner (A Fantastic Woman, SFF 2017) Sebastián Lelio’s new film is about the love affair between two women (Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams) in an Orthodox Jewish community.
Ronit (Weisz) is a New York-based photographer, long estranged from her rabbi father and her life in London. When the respected rabbi dies, Ronit returns to pay her respects and claim her inheritance. The welcome she receives is not exactly warm, and there’s poor news on the inheritance front too. Ronit is taken in by her childhood friend Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and his wife Esti (McAdams). Ronit and Esti had a passionate affair when they were younger and the old attraction simmers, but soon desire comes up against duty and faith. Gloria (SFF 2013) and A Fantastic Woman showed that Lelio is a sensitive and perceptive chronicler of desire and sexuality. With Disobedience, he has made a delicate, emotional and rewarding film.
FOXTROT
Winner of the Venice Grand Jury Prize and eight Israeli Ophir Awards, Foxtrot is a thrillingly inventive, tragic and funny examination of Israeli military culture.
When Michael and Dafna are visited by army officials, who inform them of the death of their soldier son, the couple is devastated. Michael’s grief leads to anger and frustration, until a strange twist sets the narrative on its head, leading to a dizzying exploration of history and fate. Maoz won the Venice Golden Lion for his superb debut film, Lebanon (SFF 2010), set almost entirely in a tank. Here his view is more expansive, and Foxtrot zips back and forth in time and place, incorporating animation, music and an unforgettable dance sequence. Laced with irony and humor, and intellectually and viscerally powerful, Foxtrot is a meticulously crafted and beautifully acted film.
GHOST STORIES
Three terrifying tales unfold in this anthology by Jeremy Dyson (The League of Gentlemen) and Andy Nyman (Dead Set). Martin Freeman features in this classy British chiller.
Three screaming cheers for the return of the British horror anthology! And what a grand return this is. Professor Philip Goodman is a professional debunker of psychics and all things paranormal. After exposing yet another fraud on the cheesy TV show he hosts, Goodman receives a package from an academic he once idolized. The contents propel Goodman into a series of investigations that force him to confront everything he doesn’t believe in. And it gets worse, much worse. Superbly evoking a drab gothic England of rising damp, peeling wallpaper, musty pubs and stale tobacco, Ghost Stories is a scary and wickedly clever fright fest that’ll give you a mountain of goosebumps. We dare you to enter this Vault of Horror!
LEAVE NO TRACE
Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone, SFF 2010) returns with a delicate drama about a father and daughter who are found by authorities after living off-grid in the wilderness for years.
Will (Ben Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), have lived in the Oregon wilderness for years, far from the prying eyes of authorities. They forage for food, and Will passes on survival skills to the smart and curious Tom. When the two are discovered, they’re removed from the park and placed under the care of social services. Adjustment to mainstream society proves difficult, particularly for the traumatized Will. Granik, who famously discovered Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone, has again found an actress of immense talent. New Zealander McKenzie delivers a spectacular portrayal of a loving daughter torn between her devotion to her father and her own desires. Leave No Trace is a film of great sensitivity and compassion.
MAYA THE BEE: THE HONEY GAMES
Maya the plucky bee returns in this charming animated adventure. A colorful tale of buzzy derringdo for kids aged three and up, directed by top Sydney animators.
Bubbly Maya (voiced by Coco Jack Gillies – Oddball, Mad Max: Fury Road) is set a challenge when she accidentally embarrasses the Empress of Buzztropolis. The little bee must win the prestigious Honey Games to save her hive’s honey harvest. With her best friend Willi (Benson Jack Anthony) beside her, she meets her ragtag team, including old friends Arnie and Barnie (David Collins and Shane Dundas of The Umbilical Brothers). She also encounters a jealous bee called Violet, who’s determined her team will come out on top. Maya eventually learns how to get the best from her insect crew, with a little advice from Flip (Richard Roxburgh) and his band, and Justine Clark as the wise Queen Bee.
MUG
A bitingly funny satire and Berlinale Grand Jury Prize winner; Poland’s first facial transplant patient awakes to find that – new face aside – it’s his community that’s changed, not him.
Jacek is a young man living in a Polish town who loves heavy metal, his girlfriend and his dog. While working on the construction of the tallest statue of Jesus in the world, Jacek is completely disfigured by a severe accident, requiring him to undergo a facial transplant. Surprisingly, Jacek emerges from the radical medical intervention unchanged in disposition – he’s still funny, optimistic and wishes to marry his girlfriend. But all around him, people have changed and Jacek finds himself an outsider in his own community. Director Szumowska is unsparing in her criticism of the hypocrisy in this religious town, and aided by striking cinematography depicting a deformed world, has created a hilarious, stirring film.
MY BRILLIANT CAREER
A brand-new digital restoration of Gillian Armstrong’s award-winning adaptation of Miles Franklin’s classic novel, featuring Judy Davis in her movie debut.
Set in late 19th century rural Australia, the film focuses on Sybylla (Davis), a headstrong woman determined to be a writer, who refuses to follow conventions. Armstrong’s 1979 film was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, an Oscar and a Golden Globe award, and was awarded two BAFTAs (for Davis), and six AFI Awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design and Best Cinematography for Don McAlpine). Predating Frances McDormand’s ‘Inclusion Rider’ speech by several decades, the film’s director, producers, scriptwriter, leading actor, production designer and costume designer were all women. Nearly 40 years on, Armstrong’s film has lost none of its relevance or screen power.
PIERCING
Nicolas Pesce follows his monochrome nightmare The Eyes of My Mother (SFF 2016) with a color-saturated tale of deviant desire and unspeakable urges starring Mia Wasikowska.
Reed is a seemingly ordinary husband and father. Except that he has an uncontrollable urge to kill. On a “business trip,” Reed checks into a hotel and calls an escort service. His plan to murder sex worker Jackie turns out to be anything but straightforward. Pesce’s lusciously filmed adaptation of Ryū Murakami’s 1994 novel delves into the darkest domains of human nature. Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska deliver outstanding performances as a perpetrator and victim whose notional roles reverse and reset multiple times during an extremely feverish night. Killer production design and a fabulous soundtrack of classic giallo tracks by Bruno Nicolai and legendary outfit Goblin complete the utterly compelling picture.
SAMUI SONG
Murder, marriage and religion are the ingredients of this juicy film noir by leading Thai filmmaker Pen-ek Ratanaruang (Last Life in the Universe, Headshot, SFF 2012).
There’s style to burn in this classy Thai riff on the eternal theme of a fed-up wife who wants her no good husband dead. Vi is an actress who’s sick of playing soap opera bitches and wants to make an indie arthouse film. Worse still, her abusive and impotent French hubby is blindly devoted to a sleazy cult guru known as the Holy One. The answer to all Vi’s problems seems to be Guy, a scuzzy hitman who desperately needs dough to pay his ailing mother’s medical bills. Naturally everything goes haywire but not in ways we might expect. Dotted with gallows humour, sharp social satire and surreal sequences that’ll keep you guessing, Samui Song is a hard-boiled and highly polished tale of unholy alliances.
THE BREADWINNER
Oscar-nominated animation about an 11-year-old Afghan girl, Parvana, who must pose as a boy to support her family when her father is unjustly jailed.
Adapted from the popular novel by Deborah Ellis, this portrait of life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule is the powerful tale of a young girl who faces adversity with creativity and courage. Animated by a team of over 200 artists, it was produced by Ireland’s Cartoon Salon, the studio behind Oscar nominees The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea. The Breadwinner is an unflinching indictment of a culture that oppresses women and girls. It is also an appeal for human rights and the power of imagination against tyranny.
THE INSULT
Ziad Doueiri’s (The Attack, SFF 2013) thrilling, Oscar-nominated legal drama explores festering historical, political and religious divisions in his native Lebanon.
When Palestinian Muslim foreman Yasser installs a new drainpipe on Lebanese Christian Tony’s balcony without his permission, Tony’s dislike of Palestinians leads to what appears to be a minor disagreement. But insults are hurled, and the situation soon escalates out of control. What begins with a petty argument leads to a highly publicized trial that captivates a nation, and also gives a range of people an opportunity to settle old scores. Doueiri masterfully takes this private clash of wills as a starting point to explore historic rifts amongst Lebanese communities, and the aftermath of the civil war. Intelligently using humor and pathos, The Insult is ultimately a plea for empathy, forgiveness and peace.
THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST
Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior, SFF 2014) won the Sundance Grant Jury Prize for her latest film, a moving comedy-drama set in a “gay conversion” camp.
16-year-old Cameron Post (Chloë Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass) is living with her born-again Evangelical aunt while secretly sleeping with the prom queen. When the girls are caught in the back of a car, Cameron is sent to God’s Promise, a Christian conversion therapy centre where teens are “cured” of their homosexual attractions. It’s in this surreal setting that she forms a close bond with two friends, Jane (Sasha Lane, American Honey) and Adam (Forrest Goodluck, The Revenant). Akhavan charmed SFF audiences with her hilarious debut Appropriate Behavior, in which she played a bisexual Persian woman concealing her true self from her family. She finds wit and poignancy again in this timely film about sexuality and self-acceptance.
WEST OF SUNSHINE
A working-class dad must settle a crippling debt in this punchy slice of Australian social realism. Jason Raftopoulos’ impressive first feature debuted at Venice Film Festival.
Jim’s a decent guy who works for a courier company. But he has one terrible problem that’s cost him his marriage. Jim’s gambling addiction has also left him $15,000 in debt to a loan shark. Full payment is due today – or else. Jim’s first thought is to place a big bet on a sure thing in race two at Ballarat. He has no plan B. It’s also school holidays, forcing Jim to take young son Alex around town in search of a solution – or a miracle. Marked by excellent performances and filmed in vibrant, little-seen Melbourne locations, West of Sunshine beautifully captures a father-son relationship and those moments in a child’s life when the adult world comes suddenly and sharply into focus.
The Other Side of Everything[/caption]