[List] Documentary

I guess I have picked up a new hobby. For the past two years, I have religiously watched the One World documentary film festival, the largest and most important Human Right film festival in Europe. During my first few months in Prague, not yet working and having nothing to do, I bought a season pass to the festival; ate quick meals in between films; raced on foot, trams and metros from one cinema to another to reserve tickets and catch films and got hooked. There were many things to soak in at the beginning. If you are Asian, then American and then you live in Europe, you will encounter this epiphany too. Being either Asian or American subjects you two one or two narrow views of the world and the people in it. God forbids if this godless continent broadens my view and teaches me a thing or two.

So I make it a habit to see more documentaries in the future until I become older and cynical like an Irish acquaintance. “It’s useless watching these films. I’ve been watching them for twenty some years. Nothing has changed.”

2010

Link
2009

1. Made in L.A: Underpaid Latino workers in Los Angeles organize protests and file lawsuits against clothing retailer Forever 21. (Almudena Carracedo / USA)
2. Letters to the President: Millions of Iranians write personal letters to president Ahmadinejad to ask him for small things, to complain about their poor situation. They have reason to believe in his sincerity because many of them get responses. For many Iranians, Ahmadinejad is like a living saint who cares for the people, has strong foreign policies though they do admit he’s not good when it comes to economy. (Petr Lom / Canada)
3. Yodok Stories: A escape from North Korea’s Yodok concentration camp, a director constructs a musical about this camp. Through beautiful melody, colorful costumes and dances, we are told chilling stories of life of prisoners in one of the most totalitarian regime in the world. (Andrzej Fidyk / Norway, Poland)
4. Japan – a Story of Love and Hate: Maybe you’ll feel a sense of “Lost in Translation” dejavu and see Japan in a different light from the one which was once 2nd richest country in the world, the one with all that fanciest electronic gadgets and cars. (Sean McAllister / UK)
5. Crude: Sick people from Cofran nation in Ecuador are trying to hold Chevron/Texaco accountable for their contamination of the Amazon rain forest. (Joe Berlinger / USA)
6. Interrogation/ Three: Interview with Bosnians, Croatians and Serbians about the Yugoslavia war 1992-1995. (Goran Dević / Croatia)
7. The One Man Village: Unhappy with the crowdedness and pollution of the city, one man returns to his childhood village where he is the only resident. (Semaan bil Day’ia
   Simon El Habre / Lebanon)
8. Oblivion: These bartenders, waiters and leather repairman have seen and served one president after another. One thing remains the same: the same corrupted government though led by different ones. (Peru)
9. Life After The Fall: Iraqi had great hope for their country after the fall of Sadam Hussein. But years after the dictator has gone, little and slowly things have progressed.  (Kasim Abid / UK, Iraq)
10. Sherman’s March: An depressed-prone single Southern American man plans to follow General Sherman’s march from North Carolina down south then head to the sea while painstakingly video-graphing his family, friends and his flings. The gist of the film is not about the Civil War but more of contemporary politics and Southern mentality during the 80s.  (Ross McElwee / USA)
11. *Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country: A small group of people reporters in Burma use their hidden photo camera to record the famous year-2007 monk protests and the militia government’s crackdown on the people. These footages are sent to the headquarter in Norway where they are distributed to major news network. This film wins the Vaclav Havel (human rights) Award.  (Anders Ostergaard / Norway, Sweden, Denmark, UK)
12. Biutiful Cauntri: Locals people from Campania, Southern Italy, have been trying for more than a decade to demand authority to clean up illegal dumping grounds in the region.  Andrea D’Ambrosio, Esmeralda Calabria, Peppe Ruggiero / Italy)
13. City of the Roma: The government in Bulgaria is trying to integrate the gypsies, ‘bribe’ them to go to school. Are Eastern European whites perpetual discriminate against the lazy, dirty, stealing gypsies or the gypsies indeed stealing, dirty and lazy who rather dance, do nothing and beg for charity? The answers can be yes and no for both questions. Is it the hand of Providence as the Bulgarian school principal reminds a Roma or is it the same similar economical and political cycle seen every where?  (Frédéric Castaignede / France)
14. Far from the Villages: Refugees of Chadian Dajos tribes fled from their villages after being attacked by neighboring tribes over land dispute. Helpless and powerless, they hope that the UN, Western and Arab countries provide a solution and bring them home. (Olivier Zuchuat / France, Switzerland)
15. Black Hearts (…the Earth Is Not Round): Life of 4 gypsy families in Vysegrad countries: Czech, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.  (Břetislav Rychlík, Monika Rychlíková / Czech Republic)
16. Barcelona or Die: Senegal men cross the sea every year for their passage into Europe. (Idrissa Guiro / France)
17. It’s Hard Being Loved by Jerks: A French newspaper, Charlie Hednob, decided to reprint the infamous Danish Muhammad cartoons. This defiant act resulted in law-suits brought by a Muslim council in France. This film focuses on the trial process and involved parties. It’s unbelievable how they can make an interesting 2-hour long film out of could-have-been boring interviews and cour trial. Also this is one of a very few film which forces a 180 degree turn in my opinion and point of view.  For those who argue against the printing of the cartoons and seriously care about this issue, please watch this movie to hear the arguments of those support it. If you genuinely feel that other people should respect your relgion, you too should hear how others define their democracy and why they demand respect for it.  (Daniel Leconte / France)
18. Undercover in Tibet : A Tibetan returns to his country/region to secretly document the oppressed life of his fellow men under Chinese’ tightening iron-fist rule.  (Jezza Neumann / UK)
19. Upstream Battle: Native Indian tribes along the Klamath river in California and Oregon unite to protect their livelihood, salmon, by demanding the removal of four dams. (Ben Kempas / Germany)
20. *Below Sea Level:  A group of homeless people are living in the desert border of California and Mexico. This film wins the Main Competition Award.  (Gianfranco Rosi / USA, Italy)
21. The Flower Bridge: A family of four consists of father, two girls and one boy in a small village in Moldova is trying to manage the household while the mother is working abroad in Italy to support them.
22. Voices from El-Sayed:  In Isarel’ Arab village of El-Sayed, the largest deaf community the world, life is carried out as normal.  Being deaf is in no way a hindrance to one’s life, and sometimes it can be a blessing.  Thomas Ciulei / Romania)
23. *Gyumri: An earthquake in 1988 robbed the lives of 20,000 Armenians in Gyumri, a third of which are children. The past trauma is still strongly felt in the city where parents continue their searches for their lost daughters and sons and name their living after their dead ones. The young are expected to fulfilled the dreams not only of their owns but of their dead siblings. Whether these people lead a neurotic existence or live a compassionate one (“I [parent] will live right here so when you [the dead child] return you know how to get home.”) it’s not my place to judge. I purposely avoided this film because I thought I would not be able to stand the traumatic topics of the movie, but what can I say, I reserved a ticket for the winning film. It wins the Best Director Award.  (Jana Ševčíková / Czech)

2008

1. A Jihad for Love:  How many times have I heard this cliche that people exist in different colors, shapes, sizes, nationalities and religions? Prior to this film, still it is hard for me to conjure an image of a gay Muslim couple, especially when they are females covered in headscarves. Being and accepting gay are classified as leftist ideology, one that doesn’t include God. So how can these religious Muslims still love God, be faithful to their religion and be gays? Whoa! It’s new concept for me to swallow.  (Parvez Sharma / USA, UK, Germany)
2. All White in Barking: Barking is a suburb of London which finds itself swamped with immigrants from around the world. Long-term white residents are not too happy about it and not shy from saying so.  (Marc Isaacs / UK)
3. Belarusian Waltz: How will Puskin fight against a dictator? Through the use of his pen and literature? No, through his brush and paintings. This film follows a witted Belarusian artist who shares the same name with the famous Russian writer, documenting his funny protests against Belarus’ president Lukashenko, the last dictator in Europe.  (Andrzej Fidyk / Norway, Poland, USA)
4. Between Heaven and Earth: Heroes indeed come from every corner of society. In this film, he is a wandering  Uzbek circus master who is frequently put behind bars for speaking out against the country’s post-communist/dictator regime. (Masha Novikova, Frank Van den Engel / Netherlands)
5. Bloody Cartoons: Offended by Muhammad caricatures first printed on Danish newspapers, Muslims everywhere especially from Islamic countries stage protests, some of which turn violent. This is nothing news. What’s interesting is how this “compassion” and “outrage” were brought about and provoked by radical Muslims living in Europe who traveled to Islamic countries, Iran for example, to stir up the people. We can see one professional protester who is hired to drive around the city, screaming into loud speaker to get the people out. (Karsten Kjaer / Denmark)
6. Graffiti Street: Four old friends from Bosnia, separated by the war, now unite to complete a music album they left unfinished. (Sergej Kreso / Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
7. Jerusalem Is Proud to Present: How to unite Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem? If anyone can answer that, he/she will definitely receive a Peace Nobel Prize. How about bringing a gay parade to this city? Conservative Jews and Muslims will forget their century-old grudge to work together preventing this parade from taking place. (Nitzan Gilady / Israel)
8. Journey of a Red Fridge: Porters from Nepal make their living carrying luggage for foreign trekkers or transferring items for other villagers from one place to another.  These porters range from a ten year-old child to men in their fifties. The loads they carry can be 7 times more than their own weights. In this colorful film, we follow the footstep of a teenage porter who carries a red fridge from a remote village to the city for repair. Along the way, he stops at various spots to get more stuff to carry, one of which are two chickens a father sends to his daughter. Where else can these little chicks sit except inside the red fridge? Here, we learn about rural Nepali and its down-to-earth people and exceptional landscape.  (Natasa Stankovic, Lucian Muntean / Serbia)
9. *Letter to Anna: Anna was assassinated in her apartment building in 2004. When journalists are killed in “democratic” Russia, you know it’s politics. This film connects the dots using events happened years before to explain the cause and possible involved parties in her assassination. (Eric Bergkraut / Switzerland)
10. Milosevic on Trial: The title itself is explanatory. This film records Serbia’s former head of state Slobodan Milosevic during his year-long trial from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Hague, Netherlands. Milosevic died before received his final verdict. (Michael Christoffersen / Denmark)
11. Nanking: Chilling and shocking images from Nanking where Japanese soldiers occupied for a brief time during WWII. We witness with your own eyes how low humans can stoop to. On the flip side, we can breath a sign of relief learning  about a few individuals who in dire circumstance exemplify courage, honor and humanity. I can’t help but to be constant reminded by my grandmother’s words “Off all the factions who invaded Vietnam, Japanese are the most brutal.”  (Dan Sturman, Bill Guttentag / USA)
12. Paradise – Three Journeys in This World: Africans fled to Europe to escape bleak situation from their coutries. Many depart for Morocco, inching their ways closer to Spain. (Elina Hirvonen / Finland)
13. Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case: This film touches the same topic as “Letter to Anna.” The only difference between the two is their proffesion: Anna is a journalist while Litvinenko a spy. He was
    

    poisoned on his plane to Russia and eventually died in a hospital in England. The two had close tie, and he openly spoke about her murder and accused high-ranked Russians. (Andrei Nekrasov / Russia)

14. The Future of Yesterday: Left-wingers boasts that Cuba has excellent health-care system and better quality of life compared
    

    that to the USA, but the truth is what can you expect from a tightly-controlled communist country. (Tamara Milosevic, Silva von Gerlach / Cuba, Germany)

15. To See If I´m Smiling: Israel is the only country in the world where women are required to serve in the military. The women in the film share their experiences, their views on the war and their different version of morality. (Tamar Yarom / Israel / 200)
16. Words and Death: Prague in Stalin´s Era: Czech has somewhat a milder form of Communism, but during Klement Gottwald years, Czechs endured harsher time. (Bernard Cuau / France)

2007

1. A Lesson of Belorussian: Students from Belarus defy their dictator by secretly teaching/learning Belarusan (official language is Russian in Belarus) and taking protest to the street. (Mirosław Dembiński / Poland)
2. Acts of Men: In one day, 29 people from poorest part in Rio de Jainero are murdered. This is hardly new. But what about when their muderers are police? (Kiko Goifman / Brazil, Germany)
3. Black Sun: Blinded by acid, he decides to travel the world. (Gary Tarn / UK)
4. Enemies of Happiness: This brave lady fights for Afghan women’s right to vote. (Eva Mulvad / Denmark)
5. Ghosts of Abu Ghraib: (Rory Kennedy / USA)
6. Children of Solidarity: Their parents formed the Solidarity movement which eventually overturned Communism in Poland to create a better future for them. And what exactly is their future in today Poland? (Rafael Lewandowski / Poland, France)
7. Jesus Camp: Is Christianity dead in America? Maybe, but a new form of Christianity sure does not. In this film, you take an intimate look at born-again Christians and learn of their belief. The main characters are the Jesus camp’s director and many kids at the camp. (Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady / USA)
8. Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple: Personal interviews, archived images, footages and audio clips are put together to bring about a powerful and vivid film about cult-leader Jim Jones, Jonestown, his followers and their ultimate death. This could-have-been utopia tragically ended in the mass suicide in the remote jungle of Guyana of almost 1000 cult-followers, brainwashed by Jim Jones that police were closing in on them. (Stanley Nelson / USA)
9. New Year Baby:  This American-Cambodian director was told a family secret which her parents and “sibling” have been hiding from her for many years. She travels with her father to Cambodia to learn about her identity which requires her to construct a horrid past, her father to face past enemies from his worst nightmare, hence the story about genocide in Cambodia under Polpot. (Socheata Poeuv / USA)
10. Palestine Blues: A Palestinan American hides a camera and returns to Palestine to document life of villagers whose land confisticated by Israli. (Nida Sinnokrot / Palestine, USA)
11. Please Vote for Me: Chinese young pupils are taught democratic procedure by voting to chose their class leader. During this democratic election, the candidates’ parents are coached to manipulate and bribe. (Weijun Chen / China)
12. The End of the Neubacher Project: It seems that the director makes this film as a tribute to his mother who died of lung cancer which he blames on her years of suffering as a daughter and niece of former Nazi officers. (Marcus J. Carney / Austria, Netherlands)
13. The Operation: Unrest in Bashkortostan, an autonomous region in Russian Federation. (Kerstin Nickig / Germany)
14. The Railroad All-Stars: Everyone can play football. But a team of Guatemalan prostitutes who go on to play on national level to advocate for their rights. (Chema Rodriguez / Spain)
15. The Road to Guantanamo: Unexpecting journey by three men from Afghanistan to USA’s infamous “terrorist” Guantanamo prison. (Michael Winterbottom, Mat Whitecross / UK)
16. Three Comrades : How Chechen Muslims see the Russia-Chechnya war. The film focuses on three friends, two of whom are killed by Russian militants in different events. The remaining one escapes to Holland. (Masja Novikova / Netherlands)
17. When the Road Bends…Tales of a Gypsy Caravan: World tour of gispsy singers from Macedonia, Spain, Romania and India. Beautiful music. (Jasmine Dellal / USA, Netherlands)
18. Wrong Time, Wrong Place: A mentally ill boy was brutally beaten up to death by a group of young people in a small town. Through interviews from his best friend and the friend’s father, we learn about economic situation and mentality of people from East Germany. (Tamara Milosevic / Germany)
19. Yaptik – Hasse: A nomadic family of three generations from a remote region in Siberia. (Edgar Bartenev / Russia)
20. Young, Nazi and Proud: Nazi followers in UK (David Modell / UK)

MISC

1. Bowling for Columbine:  Gun debates in USA. (Michale Moore/ USA)
2. Citizen Havel: A candid look into political and personal life of the first president of Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel. (Pavel Koutecký/ Czech)
3. Farenheit 9/11 ((Michale Moore/ USA))

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