Cinema Politica International Film Festival 2009

Proiectii fara subtitrare, in limba engleza, intre 20 si 22 noiembrie.

PROGRAM
Vineri, 20 noiembrie
18.00 Finding Dawn - Christine Welsh / Canada / 2006 / 73 min
A compelling documentary that puts a human face on a national tragedy.
FINDING DAWN puts a human face on a tragedy that has received precious little attention - and one which is surprisingly similar to the situation in Ciudad Juarez, on the other side of the U.S. border. Dawn Crey, Ramona Wilson and Daleen Kay Bosse are just three of the estimated 500 Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past 30 years. Acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh embarks on an epic journey to shed light on these murders and disappearances that remain unresolved to this day. She begins at Vancouver's skid row where more than 60 poor women disappeared and travels to the "Highway of Tears" in northern British Columbia where more than two dozen women (all but one Native) have vanished.
Awards: 2006 Winner, Amnesty International Film Festival, Gold Audience Award

20.00 Rip: A Remix Manifesto - Brett Gaylor / Canada / 2008 / 85 min
Explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century. In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. The film's central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil's Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride. A participatory media experiment, from day one, Brett shares his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix. This movie-as-mash-up method allows these remixes to become an integral part of the film. With RiP: A remix manifesto, Gaylor and Girl Talk sound an urgent alarm and draw the lines of battle.
Awards: 2008 Winner, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Audience Award 2008 Winner, Whistler Film Festival, Cadillac People's Choice Award 2008 Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Special Jury Prize

Sambata, 21 noiembrie
18.00 Carts of Darkness - Murray Siple / Canada / 2008 / 55 min
Homeless men in North Vancouver race shopping carts while collecting bottles.
In the picture-postcard community of North Vancouver, filmmaker Murray Siple follows men who have turned bottle-picking, their primary source of income, into the extreme sport of shopping cart racing. Enduring hardships from everyday life on the streets of Vancouver, this sub-culture depicts street life as much more than stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The films takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face, and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk.
Awards: 2008 Winner, Picture This Film Festival, Best Documentary

Debt Trap - David Adkin / Canada / 2008 / 35 min
This Canadian doc looks at the stories of several individuals and families who are struggling with debt. DEBT TRAP examines why the average Canadian is sinking deeper in hock, by looking at the stories of several individuals and families who are struggling with debt. Sobering, ironic, and enlightening, the film probes the reasons why more and more of us are struggling to keep afloat, and what needs to be done to turn this trend around.

20.00 Sex Slaves - Ric Esther Bienstock / Canada / 2005 / 88 min / Russian with English subtitles, English
A gripping documentary exposé inside the global sex slave trade in women from the former Soviet Bloc. An estimated half million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. They are "exported" to over 50 countries including Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, China, Kosovo, Canada and the United States. Misunderstood and widely tolerated, sex trafficking has become a multi- billion dollar underground industry.
According to the International Herald Tribune, human trafficking is the fastest growing form of organized crime in Eastern Europe. Kidnapped and/or lured by those who prey on their dreams, their poverty, and their naiveté, Eastern European women are trafficked to foreign lands -- often with falsified visas -- where they become modern day sex slaves. Upon arrival, they are sold to pimps, drugged, terrorized, caged in brothels and raped repeatedly. For these women and young girls, there is no life, no liberty and no chance for a happy and meaningful future.
Awards:
Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, 2007
Edward R. Murrow Award, 2007
British Broadcast Award, Best Documentary Programme, U.K., 2006
Gracie Award for Outstanding Documentary, New York, 2006
Royal Television Society Educational Television Awards, U.K., 2006
Best of the Festival, U.N. Documentary Film Festival, 2006
Bulldog Award for Best Documentary, Televisual Magazine, U.K., 2006
Silver Award, Worldmedia Festival, Hamburg, Germany, 2006

Duminica, 22 noiembrie
18.00 Under Rich Earth - Malcolm Rogge / Canada / 2008 / 92 min
Ecuadorian farmers fight off violent attacks from militia men as they battle a Canadian mining company. In the opening moments of Malcolm Rogge's unsettling and eye-opening Under Rich Earth, a group of small children point to some gun shells lying in the dirt at the edge of a rural road in Ecuador. Who put the shells there and why are matters of great contention and conflict. The former owners of the casings maintain that the incident resulting in their new roadside location never actually happened. But in the eyes of the people at whom the bullets were fired, the 2006 event is very real, representing the latest escalation of a decade-old fight over land, resources and environmental autonomy.

20.00 Enemies of Happiness - Eva Mulvad & Anja Al-Erhayem / Denmark / 2007 / 59 min
This film is about personal courage - courage to change the world and the courage to stand in the forefront of this battle. In September 2005, Afghanistan held its first parliamentary elections in 35 years. Among the candidates for 249 assembly seats was Malalai Joya, a courageous, controversial 27-year-old woman who had ignited outrage among hard-liners when she spoke out against corrupt warlords at the Grand Council of tribal elders in 2003. ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS is a revelatory portrait of this extraordinary freedom fighter and the way she won the hearts of voters, as well as a snapshot of life and politics in Afghanistan.
Awards: Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, Silver Wolf Award, 2006 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary, Grand Jury Prize, 2007 Festival Films De Femmes, Best long documentary, 2007 One World Media Awards, International Premier Award, 2007
New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Nestor Almendros Prize, 2007 15 Mostra Internacional de film de dones, Audience Mention Best Documentary, 2007