Sundance DocSource » Filmmakers

Donde Estan

Maria Rodriguez — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:23:15 +0000

Director: Maria Teresa Rodriguez

Logline: Three people are torn from their families during the Salvadoran civil war and attempt to find reconciliation.

¿Dónde Están? is a documentary about the search for children who disappeared during the Salvadoran civil war. Many were survivors of massacres carried out by US-trained battalions of the Salvadoran army; they were taken from the scene by soldiers, to grow up in orphanages or be raised by strangers, not knowing their true history or identity. Through three separate yet intertwined journeys, ¿Dónde Están? tells the story of war survivors whose lives reflect the troubled reality of a country still in transition from war to peace. Jamie, 28, was adopted from El Salvador as an infant and raised in a Washington suburb; she searches for her birth family. Miguel, 26, was separated from his father after an army attack killed his mother; unable to earn enough to support his own family, he illegally immigrates to the US for work. His father, survivor of a massacre in which his previous family died, searches for justice. Margarita’s mother was murdered in a massacre and her four siblings, children at the time, disappeared; she’s an investigator for Pro-Búsqueda, a human rights organization that tracks down and reunites disappeared children with their families. Their stories of struggle and hope reveal the larger issues of how a society heals itself from the scars of a civil war.

Links: (More to come in the coming months!)

www.probusqueda.org – Pro Búsqueda
www.museo.com.sv – Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen

Waiting To Inhale

Jed Riffe — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:07:46 +0000

Director: Jed Riffe

Logline: Waiting to Inhale takes the viewer from underground cannabis clubs to the United States Supreme Court; from Israeli science labs to government approved cannabis gardens outside London. It features leading experts and researchers from all over the world on both sides of the controversy over the therapeutic potential of cannabis.

Synopsis: Waiting to Inhale examines the heated debate over marijuana and its use as medicine in the United States. Twelve states have passed legislation to protect patients who use medical marijuana. Yet opponents claim the medical argument is just a smokescreen for a different agenda– to legalize marijuana for recreation and profit. What claims are being made, and what are the stakes?

Waiting to Inhale takes viewers inside the lives of patients who have been forever changed by illness—and parents who lost their children to addiction. Is marijuana really a gateway drug? What evidence is there to support the claim that marijuana can alleviate some of the devastating symptoms of AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis? Waiting to Inhale sheds new light on this controversy and presents shocking new evidence that marijuana could hold a big stake in the future of medicine.

http://www.waitingtoinhale.org/thefilm.htm

The Shock Doctrine

kfeeley — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:06:16 +0000

Director: Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross

Logline: Closely based on the book by award-winning journalist Naomi Klein, Shock Doctrine exposes how shock is used to implement economic policy in vulnerable environments.

Synopsis: Based on the best-selling book by Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine seeks to explain the rise of disaster capitalism: the exploitation of moments of crisis in vulnerable countries by governments and big business. The film traces the doctrine’s beginnings in the radical theories of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, and its subsequent implementation over the past 40 years in countries as disparate as Augusto Pinochet’s Chile, Boris Yeltsin’s Russia, Margaret Thatcher’s Great Britain, and most recently through the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Filmmakers Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross use a brand of artistic license to present a cinematic experience that takes this theory to a new audience. They make heavy use of archival images, offset with new footage of Klein’s interviews and lectures. Warning: After viewing this film, you may interpret our world history in a new light.

Casino Nation

Laure Sullivan — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:04:23 +0000

Directors: Laure Sullivan, Terry Jones and Paul Wilson

Logline: Despite prophesies that gambling would destroy them, the Seneca Nation of Indians takes its biggest gamble ever, and opens a casino, leading to factional violence and open civil war.

Synopsis: The film Casino Nation is a snapshot of a Native American tribe at a crossroads. After having endured a long and bloody struggle over tribal gaming, the Seneca Nation of Indians is now in the casino business. In production now, this film highlights the impact of sudden prosperity on this small sovereign nation that has historically struggled with crushing poverty. Will the distinctive culture and identity of these native people be able to withstand the onslaught of American culture’s promise of big and easy money? And will the tribe be able to heal the deep rifts created by conflict over casinos? The film explores these and other issues facing the Senecas during this critical time of sweeping change.

To Catch A Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks On America

Gayle Ferraro — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:01:28 +0000

Director: Gayle Ferraro

Logline: Tapping into the success of Muhammad Yunus after winning the Nobel Peace Prize (2006), Grameen America has opened in Queens, NY replicating the banking model program Yunus first started in Bangladesh.

Synopsis: What prevents poor people from getting ahead? Banks refuse to give credit without collateral. Where commercial banks see insolvency, Nobel Prize–winning economist Muhammad Yunus sees opportunity. His groundbreaking Grameen Bank was built on the radical notion that if you loan poor women money within the context of peer support, not only will they repay and sustain the bank, but they’ll elevate their communities in the process.

With millions of microloans to rural entrepreneurs in developing countries, Grameen is now audaciously importing its methods to the bastion of first-world capitalism: the U.S.A. First stop: Queens, New York. With an intimate camera capturing both buoyant and despairing moments, To Catch a Dollar chronicles the evolution of the tiny new branch. Will the solidarity principles translate to a diverse group of inner-city women? As the banking industry collapses, will these intrepid social-justice financiers succeed? One thing’s clear: we need new models to ensure prosperity for all.

Howl

Rob Epstein — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:54:39 +0000

Director: Rob Epstien

Logline: A drama centered on the obscenity trial Allen Ginsberg faced after the publication of his poem, Howl.

Synopsis: In San Francisco in 1957, an American masterpiece was put on trial. Howl is a feature film about this pivotal moment in the birth of the counter-culture—the opening volley in the coming “culture wars.”

The story is told through three interweaving threads: the trial, filmed as a widescreen 1950’s courtroom drama; a re-created “interview” with the young Allen shot in the style of a 1960’s documentary; and the poem itself, read by the real Allen Ginsberg and animated by graphic novelist and Ginsberg collaborator Eric Drooker as a Beat FANTASIA. Cumulatively, the three threads tell the story of the creation of a groundbreaking work of art, the work itself, and society’s reaction. Documentary interviews with actual participants and witnesses are used as interstitial punctuation. The genre-busting form of the film echoes the startling originality of the poem itself. The trial is the narrative spine of the film, playing out themes that are still resonant today: definitions of obscenity, the limits of free expression, the purpose of art, and more broadly, the forces of the past fearing what they don’t understand, and the inevitability of generational change. It veers from the comically absurd to a passionate defense of freedom of speech and creative expression. The hero is defense attorney Jake “The Master” Ehrlich, a snappy dresser and celebrity civil liberties lawyer who out-maneuvers the opposition with his mental and verbal agility. The prosecuting attorney, Ralph McIntosh, tries to prove that the work is obscene, while struggling to understand it. The presiding judge is Clayton Horn, who delivers a surprisingly impassioned decision.

As Nutayunean- We Still Live Here (working title)

amakepeace — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:20:37 +0000

Director: Anne Makepeace

Logline: As Nutayunean documents the Wampanoag nation of southeastern Massachusetts efforts to revive their native tongue, a language that was silenced for more than 100 years.

Synopsis: Âs Nutayuneân (working title) tells the amazing story of the return of the Wampanoag language, the first time a language with no Native speakers has been revived in this country. Every Thanksgiving, millions of Americans celebrate the generosity of the Wampanoag, although very few even know their name or that they are still on their homelands. Their ancestors ensured the survival of the first English settlers in America, and lived to regret it. Nevertheless, through resilience and courage they kept their identity alive. Now a cultural revival is taking place.

Like many Native American stories, this one begins with a vision. In 1994, a Wampanoag social worker named Jessie Little-Doe began having recurring dreams: familiar-looking people from another time talking to her in an incomprehensible language. Jessie was perplexed and annoyed– why couldn’t they speak English? Later, it dawned on her that they were speaking Wampanoag, a language no one had used for over a century. These events sent her and her tribe on a journey that would uncover hundreds of documents written in Wampanoag, lead her to a Masters in Linguistics at MIT, and result in the Wampanoag of Cape Cod and Marha’s Vineyard bringing their language home.

Crime After Crime

Yoav Potash — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:19:29 +0000

Director: Yoav Potash

Logline: A behind bars look at women in prison and the troubled intersection of law enforcement and domestic violence.

Synopsis: Crime After Crime tells the dramatic story of efforts to free Deborah Peagler, an incarcerated survivor of brutal domestic violence. Over 26 years in prison have not crushed the spirit of this determined African-American woman, despite the injustice she experienced, first at the hands of a duplicitous boyfriend who beat her and forced her into prostitution, and later by a legal system that cornered her into a life behind bars. The story takes an unexpected turn two decades later when a pair of recent UC Berkeley School of Law graduates cut their teeth on her case.

Trained as land-use attorneys, these Walnut Creek lawyers take her case pro-bono when no one else will. They bring to light long-lost witnesses, new testimonies from the men who committed the murder, and proof of perjured evidence, ultimately exposing a political cover-up that could result in Deborah’s release. Crime After Crime will be the only documentary on this case, as the filmmaker has obtained exclusive access to Deborah Peagler and her attorneys. The film raises a banner on behalf of battered women in prison, a growing but largely forgotten segment of the American population.

Dear Mandela

Dara Kell — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:40:01 +0000

Directors: Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza

Logline: Dear Mandela chronicles the year leading up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup through the eyes of three young leaders in South Africa’s Shack Dwellers Movement as they face mass evictions, assassination attempts and a betrayal of Nelson Mandela’s promise of a ‘better life for all’.

Synopsis: An intimate portrayal of three young South Africans who live in the vast slums of Durban. Shot over one year, as the city prepares to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup – the most-watched sporting event in the world – our characters navigate growing up amidst escalating mass evictions. Nelson Mandela, their hero, is a guiding force behind their struggles but also a reminder of the broken promise of ‘a better life for all’. How does his sacrifice of 27 years in prison resonate in a South Africa gone awry?

In this beautifully rendered documentary, Mazwi, a radical schoolboy; Zama, an AIDS orphan; and Mnikelo, a mischievous activist, must make difficult choices to survive. When political violence threatens her slum, Zama must choose between moving far away from the city or staying despite the dangers. Mazwi has to chart an uncertain future as he completes his final year of high school. Mnikelo must decide whether to boycott the elections and risk political persecution. While state-of-the-art stadiums are built, the government redoubles its efforts to eradicate the slums and create ‘World Class Cities’ to impress the international guests. The shack dwellers come together and decide to take their case to South Africa’s version of the Supreme Court: the hallowed Constitutional Court. For them, it is a day of reckoning, as the twelve most respected judges in the land must decide whether a shack is, in fact, a home. DEAR MANDELA portrays the stadiums and the shanty towns beneath them as symbols of the inequality so many around the world must contend with.

A central idea in the film is one of leadership. As the beloved Nelson Mandela’s face beams down from every shack wall, schoolroom chalkboard and church pulpit, our characters grapple with their individual role in shaping a country at war with itself amidst daily violent township protests, deepening poverty and rampant corruption. DEAR MANDELA is, ultimately, a story about young people who decide early on to fight for something bigger than themselves, inspiring us to do the same.

http://www.dearmandela.com/

Enemies of the People

Rob Lemkin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:19:11 +0000

Directors: Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin

Logline: A young journalist whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge befriends the perpetrators of the Killing Fields genocide, evoking shocking revelations.

Synopsis: Enemies of the People takes a peek at “the project” of Thet Sambath, whose parents were among the approximately two million who perished under the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. In an attempt to win their trust so they will admit to their deeds on camera, Sambath now spends more time and money on the erstwhile murderers than on his wife and children. We watch as Sambath contacts the culprits and confronts them with their past; one of them even demonstrates how he cut people’s throats. The filmmakers allow the horrific stories to speak for themselves, in contrast to the propaganda newscasts from back then, full of happily singing farmers. The only commentary is a recurring image of water in a rice field that flows so slowly, it is agonizing to watch. As the film progresses, it gradually reveals the scope and importance of Sambath’s hard work. The biggest fish in Sambath’s net turns out to be “Brother Number 2″ Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s right-hand man. When he gets arrested and tried by a Cambodian court in 2007, we see a series of ghastly images of the torture chambers that were his own creation. Meanwhile, Sambath has put an end to his project so he can concentrate on his own future.

Sundance DocSource » Filmmakers

Donde Estan

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Waiting To Inhale

Other Articles

The Shock Doctrine

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Casino Nation

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To Catch A Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks On America

Other Articles

Howl

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As Nutayunean- We Still Live Here (working title)

Other Articles

Crime After Crime

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Dear Mandela

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Enemies of the People

Other Articles