THE BOYS OF BARAKA
With eighty percent of Baltimore's African American boys dropping out of high school and half of them ending up in jail, Mavis Jackson runs a programme to send twenty'at risk' twelve-year-olds to a school in Kenya for their 7th and 8th grade education. This fascinating documentary highlights the profound academic and cultural failings of the North American system and the changes and achievements of the youngsters, as we follow the group through the culture shock of swapping their inner-city streets for the Baraka School's strict disciplinary regime in the bush country of East Africa.
THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY
This raw and heartbreaking documentary follows a group of orphans and runaways just about existing in Moscow's Leningradsky station, whose miserable days consist of the grim horrors of prostitution, begging, glue-sniffing and dealing with the direct threats of police brutality and AIDS. Oscar-nominated and bearing unflinching witness to the terrible reality of child-homelessness, this is a must-see insight into one of our most desperate urban conditions.
THE DEVIL'S MINER
The Bolivian silver mines of the Cerro Rico mountain have been exploited for over 450 years. It is estimated that over eight million people have died in the mines. It is known as "the mountain that eats men". The Devil's Miner is the story of 14 year-old Basilio Vargas and his 12 year-old brother Bernardino, as they work in one of these mines. Through the children's eyes, we encounter the world of devout Catholic miners who sever their ties with God upon entering the mountain. It is an ancient belief that the devil, as represented by hundreds of statues constructed in the tunnels, determines the fate of all who work within the mines.
THE LIBERACE OF BAGHDAD + Director Q&A
Life is a little complicated for Samir Peter, once the most famous pianist in Iraq. Sean McAllister's film highlights the reality of post war Iraq, and a man's determination to fulfil his dream.
THE MAN WHO STOLE MY MOTHER'S FACE
Australian filmmaker Cathy Henkel returns to Johannesburg where fourteen years ago, her mother was sexually assaulted and beaten in her suburban home by a local teenager. Henkel's despair at an ineffective police investigation as well as her mothers' inability to recover from this violent attack drives her to seek out and confront her mother's attacker. A disquieting film about justice, healing and bond between mother and daughter.
THE PRESIDENT VS DAVID HICKS
"And obviously we gave him the wrong advice, didn't we?" retorts Bev, stepmother of Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks, "because the next we heard he was on his way to Afghanistan to join the Taliban." Australian David Hicks, incarcerated in a cell in Guantamano Bay for over two years, has been refused access to a normal trial hearing, and has had no contact with any family members.
THE RAMONES: END OF THE CENTURY
In 1974, the New York City music scene was shocked into consciousness by the violently new and raw sound of a band of misfits called The Ramones. This film traces the band from its unlikely origins, through its star-crossed career, its bitter demise and the sad fates of Joey and Dee Dee. End Of The Century is a vibrant, candid document of one of the most influential groups in the history of rock.
THE LIBERACE OF BAGHDAD
Life is a little complicated for Samir Peter, once the most famous pianist in Iraq. Sean McAllister's film highlights the reality of post war Iraq, and a man's determination to fulfil his dream.
THE MINDERS
Baghdad,1998 and the pressure is intense. Hundreds of journalists are in town and Sean McAllister is one of them.But instead of focusing on the talking heads and the staged demonstrations, McAllister turns his camera on two "minders", those assigned by the Iraqi Ministry of Information to patrol what foreigners see and do not see.
THE GLEANERS AND I: TWO YEARS LATER
Agnès Varda's exuberantly inventive follow-up to her critically lauded essay film, in which she revisits characters from the original and further explores what it means to be a "gleaner." Varda's own ruminations on her life as a filmmaker (a gleaner of sorts) give her a connection to her subjects that creates a touching human portrait.
THE LEADER, THE DRIVER AND THE DRIVER'S WIFE
A documentary film about the South African neo-Nazi leader Eugene Terreblanche, and Nick Broomfield's attempts to get an interview with him. His failed attempts lead him to become acquainted with Terreblanche's driver JP and his family.
THE PLOW THAT BROKE THE PLAINS
The Plow That Broke the Plains is a short documentary which shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when uncontrolled agricultural farming led to the Dust Bowl.
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL
The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.
THE FALL OF THE ROMANOV DYNASTY
A silent 1927 Soviet documentary gathering together reams of archive footage to form a loose chronicle of events from 1913-1917.
THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL
Combining drama and documentary, The Story Of The Weeping Camel is a lovingly observed and fascinating journal of day-to-day survival in the Mongolian Gobi desert.
THE YES MEN
As the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO are aiming to develop a common approach to world economic policies called the 'coherence agenda', The Yes Men have an agenda of their own. The Yes Men gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization on TV and at business conferences around the world, amazingly without being discovered. The bizarre story begins with activists Andy and Mike setting up a website that mimics the WTO, which is mistaken for the real thing - they soon find themselves invited to important functions as WTO representatives. Delighted to speak as the organisation they oppose, Andy and Mike don cheap suits and set out to see how far they can push it - with darkly comic satires featuring the worst aspects of global free trade.
THE FOURTH WORLD WAR
In the First World War is primarily a spectacle - sensational footage, military briefings, carefully edited news presentations. The Fourth Word War shows a different kind of war - without battlefields, without a clear enemy, that is economic and cultural as well as military. It shows footage from the frontlines of neglected struggles in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, and finds a connection with the WTO protests of Seattle and Genoa, and the so-called 'War on Terror'. Directed by the award winning New York-based Big Noise Films, with Tony Award winner Suheir Hammad and singer Michael Franti from Spearhead, it is a radical story of hope and human connection in the face of a war that shatters and divides.
THE LAST PEASANTS: A GOOD WIFE
Angus Macqueen's three-part series follows the human stories of three Romanian families torn apart by the realities of migration.
THE BOY WHO PLAYS ON THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN
In March 2001 the ruling Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's foremost tourist attraction, the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Over the course of a year, this film follows the story of one of the refugees who lives in a cave amongst the ruins...
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
In 2001, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain traveled to Venezuela to videotape a behind-the-scenes profile of President Hugo Chavez. While filmming in 2002, they found themselves in the midst of a coup attempt against Chavez.
THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND
In 1969 as the Vietnam War was raging, a group of student activists announced its intention to overthrow the United States government - by any means necessary.