Sundance DocSource » Issues

Anatomy of Poverty

Elinyisia Mosha — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:29:47 +0000

Director: Elinyisia Mosha

Logline: Anatomy of Poverty follows several characters in order to explore the impact and progress of foreign direct investment on Tanzania over the last ten years since massive privatization measures were enacted.

Regarding Susan Sontag

nkates — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:39:24 +0000

Director: Nancy Kates

Logline: Regarding Susan Sontag follows the life and work of the late author, critic, director and activist.

Synopsis: Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was a restless intellectual who wrote and spoke brilliantly on the important, the new, and the politically significant developments in American culture. Her 1964 essay “Notes on Camp” helped cement her reputation as a critical thinker. The essay was groundbreaking: up to that point in history, serious writers rarely wrote about popular culture. Similarly, her work on cancer and AIDS dared to confront “taboo” subjects, adding important insights in this arena that remain significant today. In a 1992 interview, Sontag summed up her career: “All my work says ‘be serious, be passionate, wake up!’”

Why should we care about Sontag, or watch a film about her? She was an enormously influential writer whose books sold millions of copies, and yet the public knows very little about her. Regarding Susan Sontag introduces Sontag to audiences unfamiliar with her work and life, while shedding new light on its subject. The goal is to make a film that shows Sontag in her complexity and her humanity, making connections between her life, her published work, and her activism.

Regarding Susan Sontag, a 90-minute documentary, reflects the boldness of Sontag’s work and the cultural import of her thought, through extraordinary archival footage and still photographs, riveting interviews, and a rich tapestry of pop culture artifacts. From her “screen tests” for Andy Warhol to her cameo in Woody Allen’s Zelig, she was interviewed, photographed, and filmed incessantly. With the publication of On Photography and other essays, she came to be known as one of the great critics of visual culture, interpreting the meaning of photography in consumer society and political discourse. The visual style of the film reflects her sophisticated understanding of the image. Regarding Susan Sontag allows viewers to look at Susan Sontag while she looks at the world. Sontag was often brilliant, frequently infuriating, and sometimes maddeningly obtuse, but she was invariably fascinating: a natural star.

Budrus

jbacha — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:38:15 +0000

Director: Julia Bacha

Budrus Has A Hammer follows a Palestinian leader who unites Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction. Success eludes them until his 15-year-old daughter jumps into the fray.

Ayed Morrar, an unlikely Palestinian community organizer, unites all Palestinian political factions and Israelis. Together, they wage a lengthy lunch-counter-sit-in-style unarmed struggle to save his village from destruction by Israel’s Separation Barrier. Victory seems improbable until his 15-year-old daughter, Iltezam, launches a women’s contingent that quickly moves to the front lines. They not only save the village, but push the Barrier back behind the internationally-recognized armistice line that separates the West Bank from Israel. In the process, Ayed and Iltezam unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary featuring exclusive archival footage of this movement from its infancy, Budrus Has A Hammer will inspire, charm and challenge audiences worldwide.

While this film is about one Palestinian village, it tells a much bigger story about what is possible in the Middle East. Ayed succeeded in doing what many believe to be impossible: uniting all Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas; drawing women into the heart of the struggle through the leadership of his daughter, Iltezam; and encouraging hundreds of Israelis to cross into Palestinian territory for the first time and join a nonviolent movement.

Budrus Has A Hammer includes diverse voices from the leaders of the village to the Israeli border police officers stationed in Budrus at that time. While many documentaries about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict either romanticize the notion of peace, or dwell entirely on the suffering of victims of the conflict, this film focuses on the success of a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement. The protagonists not only succeeded in moving the Separation Barrier completely off Palestinian lands, they also built lasting relationships between Fatah, Hamas and Israeli activists that still thrive today, serving as a model for other communities. The story of Budrus represents what could happen in the region. With humor and frankness, this cinema verite film captures the setbacks and triumphs of an inspiring movement.

www.justvision.org
www.encounterpoint.com

Caesar’s Last Fast

rperez — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:36:22 +0000

Director: Richard Ray Perez

Caesar’s Last Fast explores the private sacrifice and spiritual conviction behind Cesar Estrada Chavez’s fight for justice and dignity for America’s farm workers, which is linked to a new generation of organizers leading the charge for farm worker’s rights today.

Cesar’s Last Fast uncovers the private sacrifice and deep spiritual conviction behind Cesar E. Chavez’s 40-year struggle for America’s farmworkers. The film is built around never-before-seen footage of Cesar’s “Fast for Life,” an act of penance for not having done enough to stop growers from spraying pesticides on farmworkers. The story of this water-only fast is the film’s dramatic arc into which the filmmakers interweave the historic events that defined Cesar’s life mission, known among the members of the movement he led as, La Causa, “The Cause.” Then, by bridging Cesar’s 20th century struggle to the present-day reality the film appraises Cesar’s legacy by immersing us in the struggle of today’s farmworkers. Many of the same conditions that inspired Cesar to organize farmworkers still exist today. These conditions are compounded by the nation’s current economic uncertainty, our political leaders’ lack of will to champion social justice policy, and the insurmountable influence corporate America has on driving our nation’s political agenda.

http://www.cesarslastfast.com
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Cesars-Last-Fast/64758711459?ref=ts

Cesar E. Chavez Foundation
http://www.chavezfoundation.org

National Farm Workers Service Center
http://www.nfwsc.org

California Rural Leal Assistance
http://www.crla.org/

Cinema Jenin

mvetter — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:34:49 +0000

Directors: Marcus Vetter and Alex Bakri

Cinema Jenin is a Fellini-esque documentary comedy taking place in the West Bank city of Jenin following a local initiative to re-open the old and only cinema in the city.

Cinema was once a staple of Palestinian cultural life. Thirty years ago, the cityscapes of the West Bank’s major towns—Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, and Jenin—were dotted with movie theaters. They all closed in 1987, during the first Intifada. Today there are almost no cinemas operating in the Palestinian controlled territories.

Cinema Jenin was one of these old movie theaters. Founded in the 1960s, it was once the largest cinema in the territories. Hundreds of people visited it each day to see the best movies made across the Arab world. Over the years, they also began screening action films, American B-movies, and even porn. The cinema closed in 1987. Today, the building is a hollow echo of the Palestinian economy in general. It is crumbling and seems just about to collapse; taking all the old stories it once contained crashing down with it. And yet, there are still hints of its glamour days for anyone to see.

Not far from the cinema, in the Jenin refugee camp lives Ismail Khatib. Ismail had his own brief moment of fame when his young son was killed by an Israeli soldier, who mistook his toy for a gun. In an unprecedented attempt to overcome the hatred that has plagued Jenin for far too long, Ismail agreed to have his son’s organs transplanted in both Palestinian and Jewish patients. His inspiring story featured in the press for several weeks, and was the subject of Marcus Vetter’s last film, A Heart from Jenin. It also led to a generous donation by the Italian government that was used to open a youth center in the refugee camp, where Ismail had spent his whole life. In recognition of his remarkable gift of life, Ismail was asked to run the youth center. The reopening of Cinema Jenin is, for him, the inevitable next step in his efforts to improve the quality of life for people living in the squalor of the camp.

Joining Ismail in his new mission is his project manager Fakhri Hamad. Fakhri was forced to shut his shoe store since he had no customers. Instead he decided to volunteer at the youth center, and has been working on the theater project ever since for no pay. For him, and for so many people like him, Cinema Jenin is a lifesaver that will one day rescue him from his economic situation. He hopes the project will succeed, and that he will succeed with it. At first glance the project seems to be going well, but the team still encounters many problems along the way. Not only must they raise enough money to pay for the renovation; they must also overcome the religious conservatives who oppose the project and where it might lead. The film follows its characters as they evolve and grow as entrepreneurs until the grand opening of the theatre when they will learn whether their efforts where successful or will they have to resume their old life in the refugee camp.

The Georgian Year

Nino Kirtadze — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:30:28 +0000

Director: Nino Kirtadze

The Georgian Year takes an intimate look at a defining year for this young democracy, from the presidential elections in January 2008 to a state of chaos and war and the resulting aftermath.

This fable of power takes place in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia. From the presidential elections in January 2008, when everything seemed possible, to a state of chaos and war and the resulting aftermath, the film will expose this critical year and turning point that reveal an international power struggle much larger than Georgia’s borders, intimately capturing the essence of ‘nation building’ in all its human and political drama.

Georgia, Abkhazia, Russia : The war option / Global Policy Forum, 13.05.2008
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/171/29880.html

Georgia pays price for its Nato ambitions / Telegraph UK, 08.08.2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2524629/Georgia-pays-price-for-its-Nato-ambitions.html

The dangers of ‘business as usual’ with Russia / EU Observer, 02.12.2008
http://euobserver.com/24/27218

Georgia-Russia: Still Insecure and Dangerous / International Crisis Group, 22.06.2009
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6171&l=1

The Georgia-Russia war a year on / Open Democracy, 14.08.2009
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-georgia-russia-war-a-year-on
Links related to previous work by Nino Kirtadze :

For God, Tsar and the Fatherland (aka Durakovo, Village of Fools), part of the Why Democracy? documentary collection
http://www.whydemocracy.net

Nino Kirtadze, Durakovo: Village of Fools / Sundance Film Festival 2008
http://www.sundance.org/festival/insider/2008-01-20-MTA-kirtadze.asp

Interview with Nino Kirtadze / The Epoch Times
http://epoch-archive.com/a1/en/us/lax/2008/02-Feb/21/B2_EET.pdf

The Pipeline Next Door / Variety, 28.03.2006
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117930062.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

Interview with directors of Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter

kfeeley — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:14:44 +0000

Filmmakers Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater have been collaborating on feature documentaries since 1990. They received a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund for their most recent film, Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter. The film recently premiered at the 2009 Silverdocs Film Festival and has screened at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. The central character, Mrs. Goundo, is fighting to receive asylum in the US, based on the grounds that her daughter will be subjected to genital cutting if Mrs. Goundo is forced to return to her native Mali. Genital excision or FGM happens to over 80% of women and is nearly universal in the Soninke tribe, from which Mrs. Goundo hails.

Attie and Goldwater recently sat down for an interview about their filmmaking and history of collaboration ahead of their screening at the Park City Screening series on September 10th.

Q: What films or photographers impacted you as young people starting out and showed you the power of storytelling? Was there a particular artist who influenced you?

Janet: Barbara and I both have backgrounds in photography. I’ve always been a huge fan of documentary photography. That influenced me in terms of what can be learned from reality. There’s art that interprets and art that reflects reality back at you and I feel like photography really gives me an appreciation for looking harder at reality. And that segued into knowing that can happen in a movie, too.

I loved the classic documentary photographers like Eugene Smith, Cartier Bresson, and really for a time was fascinated by FSA photographers, especially the less know work of Ben Shahn. The photographer that actually opened my eyes was Joel Meyerowitz. I think it was because when he came on the scene using color and large format, freezing these moments in time or places I never thought to stop and look at. So, It was actually a non-doc photographer who had the most influence on me. The other one was William Eggleston. He worked with the small format originally, which was a look at a whole different world. It was a less dramatic world. What about you Barbara?
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Barbara: One photographer who really inspired me, I don’t remember when I started looking at his photos though, was Sebastiao Salgado, the Brazilian photographer. His photographs are so incredibly moving and revealing. They’re exquisitely beautiful and yet show the human condition and tremendous human rights violations. His work really influenced me. Also, some of the same photographers Janet mentioned affected me, Cornell Capa, Eugene Smith, but also I was really taken by the work of Jerry Uelsmann who did work with multiple images and invented new realities from bits and pieces of negatives way before there was photoshop!

Janet: We also had the “Family of Man”, which was the only photo book in my house growing up. I had every single picture memorized, I just devoured it!
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Barbara: I think it’s true for my household, too! I didn’t come from a very artistic family. We did have that one book. I still remember that one shot, it’s so cliche, but I remember the shot of the two little kids holding hands and walking in the forest.
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Q: You have been collaborating professionally for almost 20 years. What do each of you bring to the table creatively that has made your partnership endure and thrive?
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Janet: Barbara by far brings more technical background. She went to film school and she has no fear of the technical end of things. Creatively, it’s really interesting, someone asked me the other day who do I agree with most when it comes to critiquing movies? Instantly, I said Barbara. If Barbara likes a film and recommends it, I’m going to like it…we seem to have the same needs in terms of storytelling.
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It’s not that hard to collaborate on the actual production. The way that we work is that I like to write, Barbara doesn’t like to write. I do the writing up front after we talk through what our image of the film is going to be. I start writing the treatment and all the grant proposals. Barbara is more of a perfectionist. She then takes what I’ve written and picks apart the problems with it and hones in on the material.
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When we’re in production it takes crews a while to get used to working with us because we see ourselves as totally interchangeable, and at first the crew wants to know who is the boss–we tell them it’s going to be an ongoing discussion. If Barbara gets there first and sets up the shot and starts working with the camera person, I’m always fine with her decision.
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We have a very similar vision but we trust each other completely with those decisions. When we ‘re on a long shoot and we have back-to-back interviews all day we simply take turns knowing the other one will do just as good a job. We’re there to support and to push each other a little bit.
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Barbara: We work so well together. We collaborate. Ego never seems to be an issue with either one of us.
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Janet: She’s serious! We never get offended when another one makes a suggestion to other about what we’ve done. We’ve long since stopped being nice to each other. All that “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but that’s not a good idea…” We can say comfortably that’s a bad idea, move on. Not worrying about being nice to each other goes a long way.
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Barbara: Also, so many of our films deal with human rights issues and women’s issues and politically we’re totally on the same wavelength with our commitment to making films that say something to the condition of women.
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Q: Documentary filmmakers can have very personal and very different definitions of what a documentary should do in the world. Whether it’s art for arts sake, activist filmmaking where your film is a tool for change, etc.. How do you see your films functioning in the world?
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Janet: Our first film, Motherless: A legacy of Loss from Illegal Abortion, is still shown widely in classrooms and for organizing purposes in reproductive justice circles. So for over 15 years, we’ve intermittently attended screenings of this modest, half hour movie that was our first collaborative effort. So every time I see a new group of young women–and men–absorb this information and react to it, it continues to remind me of the power and potential for documentary.

We’ve only made one film, Landowska: Uncommon Visionary, which didn’t deal with human rights issues or directly have any political content at all and to me it was the least satisfying. I don’t mean it was not a good film, but the least personally satisfying. A lot of people were convinced the central character was a lesbian but we didn’t really end up exploring that discussion in the film and project ended up feeling personally unsatisfying. Once you realize you’re not going to get rich, you’re not going to get particularly famous making documentaries the reason for doing it, for me, is the connection to people’s lives and actually being able to make a difference.
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Barbara: Lots of people propose projects to us but if it doesn’t have an advocacy component to it, we don’t generally respond. We want our films to have a POV and a message as well as telling a story because as Janet says if we feel there is an activist or advocacy component we feel more personally satisfied. In documentary film there is so much rejection and discouragement along the way, just finishing a film is difficult. I need to know there is a reason I’m doing it.
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Q: You both are politically active outside your filmmaking careers. How influence does your work outside film on women’s issues have on your filmmaking?

Barbara: Both Janet and I work on women’s reproductive health issues. Janet was chairman of the board of the Women’s Medical Fund and is on several other boards and I’m on the board of Planned Parenthood and chairman of the board of an organization that deals with battered women. I don’t know if Janet would agree with me but I’m actually a fairly shy person. I don’t particularly love the limelight, but I try to do social advocacy work. So I guess I relate to women who are trying to find their way to make a statement but aren’t particularly “out there.”

Janet: The organization Barbara is talking about is an organization that defends battered women who have killed their batterers and are in jail. And the group that I work with pays for abortions for women who can’t afford them. These are probably the least enfranchised people around; people whom society and even most charities have really forgotten. In order to care about individuals, women who are sitting in prison because they killed their partner (who battered them), you really have to listen to those stories. We wouldn’t be involved in these sort of marginal issues if we weren’t interested in hearing these sort of stories that happen every day. I guess the two do go together. Even with Mrs. Goundo, we were worried that her shyness and lack of assertiveness on camera might not allow her to develop into enough of a strong character but in fact that characteristics became an asset in that she was someone an audience could relate to and say “she’s just like that lady I see on the street taking her kid to school.” She’s soft-spoken and shy and became an advocate for herself and her children. She was willing to do this knowing it could help other people.
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Q: You also go to great lengths not to demonize one side of the issue of genital cuttng in the film and you present a range of voices.

Janet: As we came to understand Goundo’s life and spend more time in her area in Philadelphia, spending time with the Malians there and traveled in Africa. Once you immerse yourself in someone’s reality it’s impossible to demonize it. What we ended up doing was building context to explain some of the things that she wasn’t articulating (about her experience of genital cutting).

Barbara: One of the things we found interesting about Goundo is that while she is against the practice, she deeply misses her country and longs to be back in Mali. Once her parents started calling her to tell her to bring her daughter home, she had to confront the issue, but if it wasn’t for her daughter, she’d go back. She’d really rather be living in Mali.
We also didn’t want to demonize the people in Mali continuing this practice. We want people to understand that there are really negative consequences to genital cutting but not say these people don’t love their daughters. It’s a really complicated issue.
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Q: Were there films or artists (filmmakers, photographers, writers) who inspired you while making Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter?

We looked at Kim Longinotto’s film The Day I Will Never Forget. People say there are a lot of films out there but we couldn’t find a lot. Interestingly, our distributor, Women Make Movies, has what I consider to be a really interesting history of films about FGM. They have Alice Walker’s film (Warrior Marks) which was really the first really significant film made on the issue, and for which she got incredible push back. And then Kim Longinotto’s, which takes a different approach but avoided a lot of the problems Walker’s film had in terms of inserting herself into the film. An outside voice saying “how can you do this?” Kim steps back in her style. Our film is trying to look at what’s going on in the discussion of FGM, not line up a lot of people to show how bad it is but look at the discussion and try to figure out where it’s going.

Iran: Open Letter to the Sundance Community from Robert Redford

Agnes Varnum — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:52:15 +0000

July 20, 2009

This weekend, Iranian-born artist Shirin Neshat, a Sundance Institute Artist Trustee, sat at our annual Board Retreat and described in terrifying detail a situation we all know about, but perhaps not in enough detail. Among many others recently arrested in Iran’s post-election demonstrations are Iranian artists, journalists, filmmakers and human rights leaders, including some filmmakers who have received Sundance support. Shirin spoke of torture, and in extreme cases, executions. The situation is urgent.

When the press doesn’t cover an issue adequately, it runs the risk of falling off of the radar. Sundance Institute reaches out now to artists everywhere to stand witness until our colleagues, and all detainees, are freed.

This week, Shirin is one of the organizers of a hunger strike demonstration at the United Nations in New York City on behalf of her fellow Iranians, asking for their immediate release. On the evenings of July 22, 23, and 24, I ask the Sundance alumni community to stand with her and draw attention to this great human rights violation. Shirin has added detailed information below for you about the gatherings. This is just one of the many things you can do to keep international attention focused on the issue.

Sundance Institute has long stood for freedom of expression and the power of human rights through artist’s eyes. Lend your efforts — your voice can make a difference.

Robert Redford, President and Founder, Sundance Institute

The Reckoning: The Battle For the International Criminal Court

pyates — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:16:09 +0000

Director: Pamela Yates
Producer: Paco de Onis

Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC) — the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The Reckoning follows dynamic ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents as he issues arrest warrants for Lord’s Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, puts Congolese warlords on trial, shakes up the Colombian justice system, and charges Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. Like a deft thriller, The Reckoning keeps you on the edge of your seat. Will the prosecutor succeed? Will the world ensure that justice prevails?

An Official Selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival

Meet Camp Victory Director Carol Dysinger

kfeeley — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:11:21 +0000

Filmmaker and NYU professor Carol Dysinger has been holed up at Radical Avid in New York for the last six months with her editing associate Michelle Chang preparing her film. The invitation to participate in the Documentary Edit and Story Lab presented an opportunity for Carol to develop a feature documentary. In between teaching, editing and occassionally getting a good night sleep Carol agreed to answer our questions:

Q: Growing up, what films impacted you and showed you the power of storytelling?

A: Strangely, I started in fiction filmmaking. The films that I have been most affected by are the films that gave you permission to tell a story that you didn’t see anywhere else, told in a new way. Films like Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu. That film could illicit a certain kind of emotion by holding onto to things. It didn’t try to argue the audience into feeling specific emotions. In terms of documentary, for me, it was Hearts and Minds by Peter Davis. In its different parts it looks at things in a verite way. He said he wanted a film with “dead air” meaning no narrator explaining what was happening. By moving from images of a football game to soldiers walking by, these images at first appeared unrelated. He organized the film in a way that it felt like it had a secret structure. He built understanding through the accumulations of details. To me, working in film is about articulating things that cannot be said with words. I like films that do that for audience.

Q: The impact, both positive and negative, a filmmaker can have on the lives of the individuals and communities he/she documents is widely discussed. Can you describe the impact that the people in your film have had on your life?

A: The real impact is hard to say. Right now, a lot of what I think about are the people like Cl. Siyar and Col. Shute. I was very aware in production about what happens to filmmakers and journalists who are embedded with the military. It’s hard to separate your personal beliefs when you’re there with these guys. I was struck though as I was for once the only tree-hugging, pro-gay marriage, liberal Democrat in the room. The thing that’s hard to articulate that I greatly value is the time we had to talk. Talk about our beliefs in an open and honest way. I also felt something just being among these American soldiers that made me remember what core American values are about. It has nothing to do with your political leaning left or right, but more to do with responsibility. Showing up for people and having no excuses. Doing whatever it takes to do what you say you’re going to do and not sweating. There were numerous times both men looked out for me because that is who they were, not because they were assigned to the task. Sometimes living on the left (politically) is a very romantic culture, with a lot of excuses and little action. These men did not talk about it, they simply looked out for the people around them.

Q: If someone made a “behind the scenes” documentary about your film, what would the theme song be?

A: What song does the Duracell bunny sing? For me, it would probably be a song by Patti Smith if anything with a long guitar solo. Or a sound effects record.

Q: Do you blame punk music for your career choice?

A: Absolutely. When I was young my first job was cutting the video for “Rock the Casbah” by The Clash. After that I never looked back!

Sundance DocSource » Issues

Anatomy of Poverty

Other Articles

Regarding Susan Sontag

Other Articles

Budrus

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Caesar’s Last Fast

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Cinema Jenin

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The Georgian Year

Other Articles

Interview with directors of Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter

Other Articles

Iran: Open Letter to the Sundance Community from Robert Redford

Other Articles

The Reckoning: The Battle For the International Criminal Court

Suggested links for more information:

Other Articles

Meet Camp Victory Director Carol Dysinger

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