This is Congo

  • 165 Films Documentary Feature Films Submitted for 2018 Oscar Race

    [caption id="attachment_28784" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind[/caption] One hundred sixty-six features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 91st Academy Awards®.  Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. This year, for the first time, films that have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival or have been submitted in the Foreign Language Film category as their country’s official selection, are also eligible in the category. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 17. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture. Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019. The 91st Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide. The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are: “Above and Beyond: NASA’S Journey to Tomorrow” “Active Measures” “Amazing Grace” “American Chaos” “Andy Irons: Kissed by God” [caption id="attachment_25696" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco[/caption] “Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco” “Avicii: True Stories” “Bali: Beats of Paradise” “Bathtubs over Broadway” “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché” “Believer” “Better Angels” “Bill Coors: The Will to Live” “Bisbee ’17” “The Bleeding Edge” “Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat” “Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine” “Call Her Ganda” “Charm City” “Chef Flynn” “The China Hustle” “Christian Audigier The Vif” “The Cleaners” “Communion” “Crime + Punishment” “Dark Money” “Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” “The Dawn Wall” “The Distant Barking of Dogs” “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes” “Drug$” “Eating Animals” “Eldorado” “Fahrenheit 11/9” “Fail State” “Family in Transition” “Far from the Tree” “Filmworker” “The First Patient” “Foreign Land” “40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie” “Free Solo” “Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable” “Generation Wealth” “Ghost Hunting” “Ghosthunter” “The Gilligan Manifesto” “The Gospel According to André” “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” “Graves without a Name” “The Great Buster: A Celebration” “Hal” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” “Half the Picture” “The Heart of Nuba” “Hillbilly” “The Homeless Chorus Speaks” “Hondros” “Howard” “In Search of Greatness” “In the Land of Pomegranates” “Inventing Tomorrow” “Invisible Hands” “Itzhak” “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” “John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection” “The Judge” “Kangaroo: A Love Hate Story” “Killer Bees” “The King” “King in the Wilderness” “Kusama – Infinity” “The Last Race” “Leaning into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy” “Letter from Masanjia” “Licu, a Romanian Story” “Living in the Future’s Past” “Liyana” “Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle” “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story” “Love, Cecil” “Love, Gilda” “Love Is Tolerance – Tolerance Is Love – Make Tolerance Great Again!” “Making The Five Heartbeats” “Maria by Callas” “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” “McQueen” “Minding the Gap” “Monrovia, Indiana” “The Most Unknown” “New Moon” “93Queen” “Nossa Chape” “Of Fathers and Sons” “Of Love & Law” “On Her Shoulders” “Opera about Poland” “The Opera House” “The Oslo Diaries” “The Other Side of Everything” “The Panama Papers” “Path of Blood” “People’s Republic of Desire” “Philosopher King – Lee Teng-hui’s Dialogue” “Pick of the Litter” “Piripkura” “Police Killing” “Pope Francis – A Man of His Word” “The Price of Everything” “The Price of Free” “Qiu (Inmates)” “Quincy” “RBG” “The Rachel Divide” “The Raft” “Recovery Boys” “Restoring Tomorrow” “Reversing Roe” “The Road Movie” “Robin Williams: Come inside My Mind” “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name” “Samouni Road” “Saving Brinton” “Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland” “Science Fair” “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” “Searching for Ingmar Bergman” “Seeing Allred” “The Sentence” “Shirkers” “Shot in the Dark” “The Silence of Others” “Sisters of the Wilderness” “A Son of Man” “Songwriter” “Stan” “Studio 54” “Summer in the Forest” “Tea with the Dames” “That Summer” “That Way Madness Lies…” “They Fight” “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” “This Is Congo” “This Is Home: A Refugee Story” “Three Identical Strangers” “To Be Continued” “Transformer” “Travel Ban” “The Trial” “Triumph: The Untold Story of Perry Wallace” “Trust Machine” “Under the Wire” “United Skates” “Unknown Distance” “Up Down and Sideways” “The Waldheim Waltz” “We Could Be Heroes” “Weed the People” “What Haunts Us” “What Lies Upstream” “Whitney” “Wonderful Losers: A Different World” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” “Yellow Is Forbidden” “Yellowing”

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  • Human Rights Watch Film Festival, London Will Feature 14 Award Winning Films, Opens with “Naila and the Uprising” | Trailers

    [caption id="attachment_25154" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Naila And The Uprising Naila and the Uprising[/caption] The Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London from March 8 to 16, 2018, will feature 14 award-winning international documentary and feature films, half of them directed by women. The films offer fresh perspectives and critical insights on human rights concerns impacting people around the world today. The festival will open at the Barbican on March 8, International Women’s Day, with Naila and the Uprising directed by Julia Bacha, which celebrates the courageous Palestinian women activists who played a pivotal role in the first Intifada, 30 years ago. “In a year in which women have collectively raised their voices against discrimination and abuse, the 22nd edition of the festival spotlights strong women who push back against formidable forces within their respective societies,” said John Biaggi, creative director of the Human Rights Watch Film festival. “We are thrilled to open with the powerful Naila and the Uprising, which showcases women change-makers, and we look forward to welcoming the director Julia Bacha and film subjects Naila Ayesh and Zahira Kamal”. When a nationwide uprising breaks out in 1987, Naila Ayesh must make a choice between love, family and freedom. Undaunted, she embraces all three, joining a clandestine network of women in a movement that forces the world to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination for the first time. “I call on women all over the world, I call on Israeli mothers: double your efforts to lift the injustices from my people, so my son, and your son, and all children can live side by side,” said Ayesh, who will attend opening night. In the closing night film Silas, directed by Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman, the activist Silas Siakor and a network of dedicated citizen reporters respond with swift action when the rights to one-third of Liberia’s land are illegally signed away to multinational companies. “When they tear down the trees and strip the land, they tear down our people and strip away their lives,” Siakor said. “Silas compellingly demonstrates how dedicated individuals can lead and create change,” Biaggi said. “We look forward to welcoming Silas Siakor and the director Anjali Nayar to London.” The themes of female defiance, activists and resistance, environmental plunder and closed worlds are seen throughout the festival. In The Poetess, directors Stefanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff introduce Hissa Hilal, who through her poetry performances challenges the repressive patriarchy ruling Saudi Arabia. In Margarita Cadenas’ Women of the Venezuelan Chaos, five resilient women creatively defend their fellow citizens, their families, and their very survival amid the national crisis that has enveloped their country. Sadaf Foroughi’s timely coming-of-age drama, Ava, portrays a strong and complex teenager who is pushed to the limits as she fights to find her voice, despite the constraints of her conservative, patriarchal community in Tehran. The closing night theme of resistance and environmental plunder continues in Chris Kelly’s A Cambodian Spring, in which a fearless Buddhist monk and bold female leaders rally neighbors to oppose land-grabbing politicians and businesses, but at considerable cost to their personal lives and friendships. Directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis, Whose Streets? takes an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising in the US, told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice. “We are raising activists, we have to create a generation of activists if there’s gonna be any change”, said Aurellia Davis-Whitt, activist and film subject. The festival will screen three films that expose viewers to worlds usually closed from the public eye: Mohammed Naqvi’s Insha’Allah Democracy shows a surprisingly intimate side of the former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan; Peter Nicks’ The Force brings us inside the Oakland Police Force in the USA, which is struggling to make change amidst serious corruption and misconduct, and Adam Sobel’s The Workers Cup presents an exposé on working conditions that migrant workers face in building the 2022 World Cup site in Qatar, following a group of young laborers hoping to become footballers themselves. Three compelling cinema-verité-style documentaries reveal how war and bureaucracy can force institutions of care and shelter to become places of imprisonment and containment. Set in France where each year 92,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent, Raymond Depardon’s 12 Days captures the raw and vulnerable interactions at the border of justice and psychiatry, humanity and bureaucracy when a crucial decision must be made: will a patient be forced to stay in a hospital or granted freedom. In Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman’s Muhi – Generally Temporary, a young boy from Gaza has been trapped in an Israeli hospital for over eight years. Rushed there in his infancy with a life-threatening immune disorder, Muhi, and his doting grandfather, Abu Naim, are caught in an immigration limbo and only permitted to reside within the constraints of the hospital walls. And in The Long Season, the award-winning filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich (Position Among the Stars) spent a year-and-a-half in the Majdal Anjar refugee camp in Lebanon capturing the intimate daily lives of Syrians whose futures are postponed by war. This year’s benefit gala on March 7 at RIBA features Daniel McCabe’s This Is Congo, an immersive and unfiltered look at this lush, mineral-rich country, from the rise of Rwandan and Ugandan-backed M23 rebels in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 to the present day, via four profoundly resilient characters. Described by Timo Meuller, researcher in the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch as, “the best documentary I’ve seen on the Democratic Republic of Congo. McCabe cares deeply about the country and does a great job walking the audience through the complicated historical trajectory of the Congo.” This is Congo will also screen within the festival program. 12 Days Filmmaker(s):Raymond Depardon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn6CbSBi3ho A Cambodian Spring Filmmaker(s):Chris Kelly https://vimeo.com/209625471 Ava Filmmaker(s):Sadaf Foroughi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9pDPmF3is Insha’allah Democracy Filmmaker(s):Mohammed Naqvi https://vimeo.com/237785739 Muhi – Generally Temporary Filmmaker(s):Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Ej_v-_IwQ Naila and the Uprising Filmmaker(s):Julia Bacha https://vimeo.com/242161763 Silas Filmmaker(s):Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman The Force Filmmaker(s):Peter Nicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrS5Okom6ow The Long Season Filmmaker(s):Leonard Retel Helmrich https://vimeo.com/248278067 The Poetess Filmmaker(s):Stefanie Brockhaus and Andreas Wolff https://vimeo.com/241193553 The Workers Cup Filmmaker(s):Adam Sobel https://vimeo.com/218488667 This Is Congo Filmmaker(s):Daniel McCabe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WfWODjDYAk Whose Streets? Filmmaker(s):Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upiJnjJSerw Women of the Venezuelan Chaos Filmmaker(s):Margarita Cadenas https://vimeo.com/227763820

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  • VIDEO: Watch Daniel McCabe’s Eye Opening Documentary THIS IS CONGO Trailer

    This is Congo Here is the powerful trailer for Daniel McCabe’s eye opening documentary This is Congo which will have its New York premiere at the upcoming DOC NYC 2017. The film had its world premiere at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and will also screen at the upcoming IDFA 2017. After living in the Congo for 7+ years, McCabe gained unprecedented access to top military officials and well-connected locals, allowing him to give a truly unfiltered look into one of the longest conflicts in the world, and the people surviving within it. This is Congo examines multiple sides of the fractious war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following a former rebel whistle blower, a beloved frontline Commander and Mama Romance, a charismatic mineral dealer working on the black market. This is Congo is a highly-immersive, unfiltered look into one of the longest conflicts in the world. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has seen more than five million conflict-related deaths, multiple regime changes and the wholesale impoverishment of its people in the past two decades. This is Congo immerses the viewer onto the frontlines of battle with key players including a whistleblower and military commanders to provide a truly unfiltered and unique look into the conflict plaguing Congo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WfWODjDYAk

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  • 28th Stockholm International Film Festival Announces Lineup, THE SHAPE OF WATER, DOWNSIZING and More

    [caption id="attachment_25167" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]The Shape Of Water Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER.[/caption] 150 films from 60 different countries have been selected to be screened at the 28th Stockholm International Film Festival that takes place from the November 8th to the 19th. A third of the films in this year’s festival program are directed by first-time filmmakers, the festival is also joined by legends such as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave. After a long and successful Hollywood-career 80 year old Vanessa Redgrave makes her debut as a director with the documentary Sea Sorrow. The film focuses on the global refugee crisis and is a part of this years Spotlight – Change. This years Visionary Award recipient is the director Pablo Larraín. Larraín is the director behind the Academy Award-nominated Jackie (2016); he is now attending the Stockholm Film festival with his latest film Neruda. The premiere movie of this year’s film festival is the critically acclaimed film The Shape Of Water by the director behind the Academy Award-winning Pan’s Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro also won the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. A selection of other films that will be screened are: Thelma by Joachim Trier, Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino, The Party by Sally Porter, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh and last but not least Downsizing by Alexander Payne.

    Stockholm International Film Festival – Program 2017

    Stockholm XXVIII Competition

    A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano (Italy, France, USA, Germany, 120 min) Ava by Léa Mysius (France, 106 min) Beach Rats by Eliza Hittman Co (USA, 95 min) Beast by Michael Pearce (Great Britain, 107 min) Falling by Marina Stepanska (Ukraine, 105 min) Gabriel And The Mountain by Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa (Brazil, France, 127min) God’s Own Country by Francis Lee (Great Britain, 104 min) I Am Not A Witch by Rungano Nyoni (Great Britain, France, 92 min) Insyriated by Philippe Van Leeuw (Belgium, France, Liban, 85 min) Jeune Femme by Léonor Serraille (France, 97 min) King Of Peking by Sam Voutas (USA, Australia, China, 88 min) La familia by Gustavo Rondón Córdova (Venezuela, Chili, Norway, 82 min) Los Perros by Marcela Said (Chile, France, 94 min) No Date, No Signature by Vahid Jalilvand (Iran, 100 min) One Thousand Ropes by Tusi Tamasese (New Zealand, 98 min) The Rider by Chloé Zhao (USA, 105 min) Son of Sofia by Elina Psikou (Bulgaria, France, Greece, 105 min) Where The Shadows Fall by Valentina Pedicini (Italy, 95 min)

    Stockholm XXVIII Documentary Competition

    A Gray State by Erik Nelson (USA, 93 min) Copwatch by Camilla Hall (USA, 99 min) For Ahkeem by Jeremy S. Levine and Landon Van Soest (USA, 89 min) The Force by Peter Nicks (USA, 93 min) Lots of Kids, A Monkey, And A Castle by Gustavo Salmerón (Spain, 90 min) The New Radical by Adam Bhala Lough (USA, 120 min) Step by Amanda Lipitz (USA, 83 min) Tarzan’s Testicles by Alexandru Solomon (Romania, France, 107 min) This is Congo by Daniel McCabe (Democratic Republic of Congo, USA, Canada, 91 min) This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous by Barbara Kopple (USA, 91 min) True Conviction by Jamie Meltzer (USA, 84 min) The Venerable W by Barbet Schroeder (France, Switzerland, 100 min)

    Stockholm Impact

    Cardinals by Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley (Canada, 84 min) The Last Verse by Ying`Ting Tseng (Taiwan, 100 min) My Pure Land by Sarmad Masud (Great Britain, 92 min) Searing Summer by Ebrahim Irajzad (Iran, 83 min) Wild Roses by Anna Jadowska (Poland, 89 min)

    Open Zone

    A Fantastic Woman by Sebastián Lelio (Chile, USA, Germany, Spain, 104 min) A Man Of Integrity by Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran, 117 min) Amant Double by François Ozon (France, 110 min) April’s Daughter by Michel Franco (Mexico, 102 min) Based On A True Story by Roman Polanski (France, 110 min) Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino (Italy, France, 130 min) Free And Easy by Jun Geng (Honk Kong, 97 minutes) Gisslan by Rezo Gigineishvili (Russian Federation, Georgia, Poland, 103 min) Have A Nice Day by Liu Jian (China, 75 min) Ice Mother by Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, 105 min) Mr. Long by Sabu (Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Germany, 129 min) On The Beach At Night Alone by Hong Sang`Soo (South Korea, 101 min) Our Time Will Come by Ann Hui (Honk Kong, 130 min) Radiance by Naomi Kawase (Japan, France, 101 min) Thelma by Joachin Trier (Norway, France, 109 min) The Shape Of Water by Guillermo del Toro (USA, 119 min) The Wandering Soap Opera by Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento (Chile, 80 min) The Workshop by Laurent Cantet (France, 113 min)

    American Independents

    Band Aid by Zoe Lister`Jones (USA, 94 min) The Boy Downstairs by Sophie Brooks (USA, 91 min) Brigsby Bear by Dave McCary (USA, 100 min) Crown Heights by Matt Ruskin (USA, 99 min) The Endless by Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson ( USA, 111 min) The Florida Project by Sean Baker (USA, 115 min) Gemini by Aaron Katz (USA, 93 min) Ingrid Goes West by Matt Spicer (USA, 97 min) Kings by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (France, Belgium, 86 min Life And Nothing More by Antonio Méndez Esparza (USA, 113 min) The Lovers by Azazel Jacobs (USA, 98 min) Keep The Change by Rachel Israel (USA, 94 min) Most Beautiful Island by Ana Asensio (USA, Spain, 80 min) Permanent by Colette Burson (USA, 97 min) Sollers Point by Matthew Porterfield (USA, France, 101 min) Who We Are Now by Matthew Newton (USA, 99 min)

    Icons

    Battle Of The Sexes by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Great Britain, USA, 121 min) Breathe by Andy Serkis (Great Britain, 117 min) Downsizing by Alexander Payne (USA, 135 min) The Final Journey by Nick Baker`Monteys (Germany, 100 min) Final Portrait by Stanley Tucci (USA, 90 min) Hannah by Andrea Pallaoro (France, 80 min) The Hero by Brett Haley (USA, 96 min) Let The Sunshine In by Claire Denis (France, 94 min) The Party by Sally Potter (Great Britain, 71 min) Reinventing Marvin by Anne Fontaine (France, 115 min) Rodin by Jacques Doillon (France, 119 min) Suburbicon by George Clooney (USA, 105 min) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri by Martin McDonagh (USA, UK, 115 min) You disappear by Peter Schønau Fog (Denmark, 118 min) Wonder Wheel by Woody Allen (USA, 101 min)

    Discovery

    Axolotl Overkill by Helene Hegemann (Germany, 94 min) Daybreak by Gentian Koçi (Albania, Greece, 85 min) Disappearance by Ali Asgari (Iran, Qatar, 88 min) Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl! by Felipe Bragança (Brazil, Netherlands, France, Paraguay, 108 min) If You Saw His Heart by Joan Chemla (France, 86 min) Killing Jesus by Laura Mora (Colombia, Argentina, 100 min) Menashe by Joshua Z Weinstein (USA, 82 min) Oh Lucy! by Atsuko Hirayanagi (Japan, USA, 97 min) The Testament by Amichai Greenberg (Israel, 88 min) Vazante by Daniela Thomas (Brazil, Portugal, 116 min)

    Documania

    Chavela by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi (USA, 90 min) Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini (USA, 101 min) Hondros directed by Greg Campbell (USA, 93 min) The Paris Opera by Jean`Stéphane Bron (France, 110 min) Return Of A President – After The Coup In Madagascar by Lotte Mik`Meyer (Denmark, South Africa, France, Madagascar, 78 min) Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World by Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana (Canada, 103 min) Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda by Stephen Nomura Schible (USA, 102 min) Served Like A Girl by Lysa Heslov (USA, 93 min) Shadowman by Oren Jacoby (USA, 83 min) Take Every Wave: The Life Of Laird Hamilton by Rory Kennedy (USA, 118 min) Walk with me by Max Pugh and Marc J. Francis (Great Britain, 94 min)

    Twilight Zone

    A Day by Sun`Ho Cho (South Korea, 90 min) Blade Of The Immortal by Takashi Miike (Japan, 140 min) The Cured by David Freyne (Ireland, Great Britain, France, 95 min) Double Date by Benjamin Barfoot (Great Britain, 90 min) Les Affamés by Robin Aubert (Canada, 100 min) Jailbreak by Jimmy Henderson (Cambodia, 92 min) Lowlife by Ryan Prows (USA, 98 min) The Merciless by Sung`Hyun Byun (South Korea, 120 min) Ugly Nasty People by Cosimo Gomez (Italy, France, 87 min) The Villainess by Byung`Gil Jung (South Korea, 129 min)

    Spotlight

    An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk (USA, 99 min) Human Flow by Ai Wei Wei (Germany, 140 min) More by Onur Saylak (Turkey, 115 min) This Is Our Land by Lucas Belvaux (France, Belgium, 118 min) Wasted! The Story Of Food Waste by Anna Chai and Nari Kye (USA, 85 min) Zagros by Sahim Omar Kalifa (Belgium, 100 min)

    Stockholm XXVIII Short Film Competition

    A Gentle Night by Qui Yang (China, 15 min) Aria by Myrsini Aristidou (Cyprus, France, 14 min) Atelier by Elsa María Jakobsdóttir (Denmark, 30 min) Bonboné by Rakan Mayasi (Lebanon, Palestine, 15 min) Hombre by Juan Pablo Arias Muñoz (Chile, 21 min) Into the Blue by Antoneta Kusijanovic (Croatia, Slovenia, 22 min) Kudzu by Connor Simpson (USA, 15 min) Lost Property Office by Daniel Agdag (Australia, 10 min) Marlon by Jessica Palud (France, Belgium, 19 min) The Ogre by Laurène Braibant (France, 10 min) Retouch by Kaveh Mazaheri (Iran, 20 min) Signature by Kei Chikaura (Japan, 13 min) Superpower Girl by Soo`Young Kim (South Korea, 24 min) Time To Go by Grzegorz Mołda (Poland, 15 min) You Will Be Fine by Céline Devaux (France, 15 min)

    Special Event

    Neruda by Pablo Larraín (Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, USA, 107 min) Varg by Frida Kempff and Erik Andersson (Sverige, 11 min) Sea Sorrow by Vanessa Redgrave (Great Britain, 74 min) Surprise film

    1 Km Film

    Förebilder by Elin Övergaard (Sweden,13 min) In Love by Ville Gideon Sörman (Denmark, 29 min) Intercourse by Jonatan Etzler (Sweden, 10 min) Mephobia by Mika Gustafsson (Sweden, 24 min) Min Homosyster by Lia Hietala (Sweden,15 min) Push It by Julia Thelin (Sweden, 8 min) Skuggdjur by Jerry Carlsson (Sweden, 21 min) Stay Ups by Joanna Rytel (Sweden, 11 min) Stranded by Viktor Johansson (Sweden, 11 min) Turkkiosken by Bahar Pars (Sweden, 7 min) Image: Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer in the film THE SHAPE OF WATER. Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures. © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

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  • 2017 Camden International Film Festival Announces Lineup, Opens with World Premiere of SHOT IN THE DARK

    [caption id="attachment_23992" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Shot in the Dark by Dustin Nakao Haider Shot in the Dark by Dustin Nakao Haider[/caption] The 2017 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) will take place September 14 to 17, 2017 throughout Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine, and present 37 features, 35 short films, and a dozen virtual reality experiences from 30 countries.  Keeping with CIFF’s mission to discover and support new talent in nonfiction filmmaking, over half of the lineup’s 37 features are made by first- or second-time filmmakers. CIFF will open with the world premiere of Dustin Nakao Haider’s Shot in the Dark.  Additional highlights include titles making their US debut following premieres at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (Love Means Zero, Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars, Cocaine Prison), the North American premieres of films coming from Locarno (Sand und Blut, Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?) and Venice (This Is Congo), award-winning films from Visions du Reel (Taste of Cement, All That Passes By Through a Window That Doesn’t Open) and Berlin (El Mar La Mar, House In The FieldsDevil’s Freedom) alongside some of the year’s top documentaries (Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Whose Streets?, The Work). The 13th Camden International Film Festival is a program of the Points North Institute.  This year, eight projects that have participated in the Points North Institute’s Artist Programs will be screening at CIFF. These titles include All That Passes By Through A Window That Doesn’t Open, No Man’s Land, The Cage Fighter, The Family I Had, The Reagan Show, The Sensitives, Whose Streets? and Commodity City. These films have garnered awards and debuted at prestigious festivals including Sundance, Locarno, Tribeca, Rotterdam, and Visions du Reel. “Screening at CIFF this year feels like a homecoming,” says Sabaah Folayan, Director of Whose Streets?, distributed by Magnolia Pictures. “This community believed in our project when it was still just an idea and it means everything to be able to come back and share the finished film.” This year also features an expanded 2nd edition of Storyforms: Remixing Reality, CIFF’s exhibition of VR, immersive media, and installations. For the first time, Storyforms will present “room-scale” and “walk-around” VR experiences. Highlights include Tree by Milica Zec and Winslow Porter, which comes to CIFF after showing at Sundance, Tribeca and Cannes. Storyforms will also include a sneak preview of the latest groundbreaking walk-around VR experience produced in a new collaboration between FRONTLINE PBS and Nonny de la Peña’s Emblematic Group, which brings climate change to life as never before, allowing viewers to travel alongside NASA scientists to a place where the glaciers are melting faster and faster.

    2017 Camden International Film Festival Features

    SHOT IN THE DARK – Opening Night Film Dustin Nakao Haider | United States |  96 mins Orr Academy’s basketball court is a haven. Outside, it’s a neighborhood racked with gangs and violence. Though each player has his own struggle, they’ll need to fight together if they ever want to break out. World Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance 69 Minutes of 86 Days Egil Håskjold Larsen | Norway | 71 mins A 3-year-old girl and her family’s long journey from a Greek refugee centre to Uppsala, in a film that gives the tragedy both a form and a face. US Premiere A River Below Mark Grieco | USA, Colombia | 86 mins A River Below captures the Amazon in all its complexity as it examines the actions of environmental activists using the media in an age where truth is a relative term. Filmmaker in Attendance Abacus: Small Enough to Jail Steve James | USA | 88 mins From acclaimed director Steve James, ABACUS tells the incredible family saga of the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Filmmaker in Attendance All That Passes By Through a Window That Doesn’t Open Martin DiCicco | USA, Qatar | 70 mins A journey by rail where workers reflect upon opportunity and regret, floating through a Eurasian expanse striving to fill their days and dreams, as much as their pockets. North American Premiere / PNI Alumni | Filmmaker in Attendance Behold the Earth David Conover | USA | 63 mins A feature-length musical documentary film that inquires into America’s divorce from nature, built out of conversations with leading biologists and evangelical Christians. Filmmaker in Attendance Bobbi Jene Elvira Lind | Denmark. Sweden, Israel, USA | 96 mins A love story, and a film about a woman’s fight for independence, a woman trying to succeed with her own art in the extremely competitive world of dance. Filmmaker in Attendance Cocaine Prison Violeta Ayala | Australia, Bolivia, France & USA | 76 mins From inside one of Bolivia’s most infamous prisons, comes the story of the foot soldiers of the drug trade. US Premiere | Filmmakers in Attendance Common Carrier James N. Kienitz Wilkins | USA | 78 mins A mix of artists struggle to perform their roles, at once connected and alienated by the plague of modern life. Filmmaker in Attendance Devil’s Freedom Everardo González | Mexico | 74 mins A deeply compelling investigation into the phenomenon of Mexico’s “disappeared” from the perspectives of those bereaved by, and those responsible for, some truly barbaric acts. Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun? Travis Wilkerson | USA | 90 mins This isn’t a White Savior story. It’s a White Nightmare story. North American Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance Do Donkeys Act? Ashley Sabin, David Redmon | UK | 72 mins A film that subtly subverts the notion of the “dumb beast” as it captures donkeys communicating emotionally with each other in the midst of healing from human cruelty and neglect.  Filmmakers in Attendance El Mar La Mar Joshua Bonnetta, J.P. Sniadecki | USA | 94 mins A portrait of the Sonoran Desert along the United States border with Mexico. Filmmakers in Attendance Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars Lili Fini Zanuck | USA | 95 mins A look at the life and work of guitarist Eric Clapton told by those who have known him best, including BB King, Jimi Hendrix, and George Harrison. US Premiere House in the Fields Tala Hadid | Morocco, Qatar | 86 mins House in the Fields is the first part of a triptych set in Morocco, that starts in the Atlas Mountains, journeys through Casablanca and finishes beyond the borders. US Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance In the Waves Jacquelyn Mills | Canada (Québec) | 60 mins An expressive documentary that depicts the life of 80 years old Joan Alma Mills in her aging coastal village as she finds herself confronted by the fragility of life. North American Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance Let There Be Light Mila Aung-Thwin, Van Royko | Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, USA | 90 mins Let There Be Light follows the story of dedicated scientists working to build a small sun on Earth, which would unleash perpetual, cheap, clean energy for mankind. After decades of failed attempts, a massive push is now underway to crack the holy grail of energy. Filmmaker in Attendance Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry Laura Dunn, Jef Sewell | USA | 80 mins A cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path. Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle Gustavo Salmerón | Spain | 90 mins A bustling, loose-limbed portrait of actor-director Gustavo Salmerón’s large family, especially his unforgettable mom. US Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance Love Means Zero Jason Kohn | USA | 89 mins Nick Bollettieri coached a generation of tennis champions, but his relentless desire to win cost him the relationship he valued most. US Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance Maineland Miao Wang | China, USA | 89 mins Chinese students now account for over one-third to one-half of international secondary school students, including in a small liberal arts college in Maine. Filmmaker in Attendance No Man’s Land David Byars | USA | 83 mins Embedded with the militants of the 2016 occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, NO MAN’S LAND provides a vivid depiction of events that have become emblematic of the current political divide. PNI Alumni | Filmmaker in Attendance Purge This Land Lee Anne Schmitt | USA | 80 mins Contemplating the culpability of White America in the ongoing disenfranchisement of Black America, this film combines images of sites of white racial violence with anecdotal history of John Brown’s radical ethics.  Sneak Preview | Filmmaker in Attendance Quest Jonathan Olshefski | USA | 104 mins The moving portrait of a family in North Philadelphia who open the door to their home music studio, which serves as a creative sanctuary from the strife that grips their neighborhood.Filmmaker in Attendance Resurrecting Hassan Carlo Guillermo Proto | Canada, Chile | 100 mins A blind family is haunted by the tragic death of their son Hassan and seek to resurrect his spirit and transcend their suffering, while singing in the subways of Montreal. Filmmaker in Attendance Sand und Blut (Sand and Blood) Matthias Krepp, Angelika Spangel | Austria | 90 mins Private video footage narrated by refugees now living in Europe offers a new and intimate perspective on Syria and Iraq’s recent history: a montage of haunting images of devastation, fear, and hatred. North American Premiere | Filmmakers in Attendance Secret Screening Academy-Award Winning Director | USA A gripping investigation by one of the country’s most celebrated directors. Sneak Preview | Filmmaker in Attendance Shot in the Dark Dustin Nakao Haider | USA | 96 mins Orr Academy’s basketball court is a haven. Outside, it’s a neighborhood racked with gangs and violence. Though each player has his own struggle, they’ll need to fight together if they ever want to break out. Opening Night Film | World Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance Stranger in Paradise Guido Hendrikx | Netherlands | 72 mins A blunt film essay on the power relations between Europe and refugees. Filmmaker in Attendance Taste of Cement Ziad Kalthoum  | Germany, Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Qatar | 85 mins In Beirut, Syrian construction workers are building a skyscraper while at the same time their own houses at home are being shelled. North American Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance The Cage Fighter Jeff Unay | USA | 83 mins Although a man promises his wife and daughters that he will not return to competitive mixed martial arts fighting, he secretly begins training for the dangerous sport that gives him a sense of purpose. PNI Alumni | Filmmaker in Attendance The Departure Lana Wilson | USA | 87 mins Ittetsu Nemoto, a former punk-turned-Buddhist-priest in Japan, has made a career out of helping suicidal people find reasons to live. Filmmaker in Attendance The Family I Had Katie Green, Carlye Rubin | USA | 77 mins How does the mother to a murdered child and the murderer himself move forward, and what kind of relationship can she forge with her now incarcerated son? PNI Alumni | Filmmakers in Attendance The Reagan Show Pacho Velez, Sierra Pettengill | USA  | 75 mins Made up entirely of archival news and White House footage, this documentary captures the pageantry, absurdity, and mastery of the made-for-TV politics of Ronald Reagan. PNI Alumni | Filmmakers in Attendance The Sensitives Drew Xanthopoulos | USA | 83 mins What if modern life made you sick? PNI Alumni | Filmmaker in Attendance The Work Jairus McLeary, Gethin Aldous | USA | 87 mins Set entirely inside Folsom State Prison, “The Work” follows 3 men during 4 days of intensive group therapy with convicts, revealing an intimate and powerful portrait of authentic human transformation that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation. Filmmakers in Attendance This is Congo Daniel McCabe | USA | 93 mins Following four compelling characters, the film offers a truly Congolese perspective and an immersive exploration into Africa’s longest continuing conflict. North American Premiere | Filmmaker in Attendance Whose Streets? Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis | USA | 90 mins “Portrait of Ferguson May Be the Doc of the Year: Powerful you-are-there portrait of how a community raged in the aftermath of tragedy – and reacted with activism – could not be more vital” – Rolling Stone PNI Alumni | Filmmakers in Attendance

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