Archive for November, 2006
Michael Winterbottom’s docu-drama “The Road to Guantanamo” won the award for Best British Documentary at last night’s BIFA ceremony in London. The film focuses on a trio of British Muslims who were held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge.
Plot Synopsis – In 2001, four Pakistani Britons, Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul and another friend, Monir, travel to Pakistan for a wedding, and decide to see the situation of war-torn Afganistan. Once there, with the loss of Monir in the chaos, they are captured by Northern Alliance fighters. They are then handed over to American forces who transport them to the Guantanamo prison. What follows is three years of interrogations and torture to make them submit to false confessions on being terrorists. In the midst of this abuse, the three try to keep their spirits up but barely survive.
The film was broadcast on Channel 4 last year and has won numerous awards, including the Silver Bear for Direction at the 2006 Berlin International Film Festival. It was released on DVD in October 2006.
British Independent Film Awards
Buy the “Road to Guantanamo” from Amazon.co.uk
London’s National Film Theatre will be host to a one-day UN documentary festival, screening 23 films on a number of human rights issues incl. human trafficking, female genital mutilation, child labour, HIV/AIDS, and domestic violence. Entitled “Stories from the field”, the event will feature films of all styles and length, including short public service announcements and feature documentaries. Where: National Film Theatre, at London’s South Bank — When: 2 December, 11am - 8.30pm.
For more info: http://www.mcainy.org/common/11040/?clientID=11040 or www.unawestminster.org.uk/
A new Canadian documentary about the world’s second largest corporation Wal-Mart is making headlines in both Canada and the US. Directed by Sergeo Kirby, “Wal-Town” follows six student activists as they travel to 36 Canadian towns where Wal-Mart has established stores.
The film grew out of the anti-globalisation student movement “überculture”, which has been fighting against the hegemony of the consumer giant. It has criticised Wal-Mart for destroying local communities and businesses, using Third World sweatshops to produce goods, and paying its employees substandard wages.
Wal-Mart recorded a $11.2 billion in profit in 2006 but defenders of globalisation say that the corporation brings an estimated 38,000 people out of poverty in China each month, and about 460,000 per year. For more on the documentary and the “überculture” movement, see www.waltown.com.
Ahead of the Oscars ceremony on February 25, 2007, the following 15 films have made it to the Best Documentary Shortlist. Only 5 will make it all the way to the end, but all 15 titles belong to a filmmaker’s collection.
Here are the titles to watch out for:
Blindsight — Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? — Deliver Us from Evil — The Ground Truth — An Inconvenient Truth — Iraq in Fragments — Jesus Camp — Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple — My Country, My Country — Shut Up & Sing — Sisters in Law — Storm of Emotions — The Trials of Darryl Hunt — An Unreasonable Man — The War Tapes
Much of the shortlist is made up of hard-hitting features on key political issues. James Longley’s haunting “Iraq in Fragments” looks at life on the ground for Iraqi people as they come to terms with American-led occupation, economic hardships and the grinding reality of post-Saddam Iraq.
Deborah Scranton’s compassionate film “The War Tapes” uses material recorded on camcorder by American soldiers, and takes the intimacy that can be achieved in the documentary genre to another level. Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” outlines a global catastophy if global warming is left unaddressed, and Kim Longinotto’s powerful tale of two African judges makes you believe that there is hope for Africa.
Nominations for the 79th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. http://www.oscars.org/
Last night was “Rory Peck Awards” night at London’s National Film Theatre, celebrating the work of freelance cameramen and camerawomen in TV news, current affairs and features.
The Sony Impact Award, which honours ground-breaking freelance footage providing humanitarian imagery, went to the Iraqi filmmaker and doctor Ali Fadhil, whose film “Iraq’s Missing Billions” was produced for Channel 4’s Dispatches.
The Hard News Award was received by Palestinian filmmaker Zakaria Abu Harbid for his story about a 12-year-old girl in the aftermath of an explosion killed her entire family on Gaza Beach. The third award, the Rory Peck Award for Features, went to South African Dirk Nel, who won for his feature on violence towards Guatamalean women.
The Rory Peck Trust was founded in 1995 in honour of Rory Peck, a respected cameraman who was killed in 1993 while covering the October coup outside Moscow’s television centre, Ostankino. Through training, bursaries and the annual awards, the Trust aims to support the vital work of freelance cameramen and women, and to raise their profile within broadcasters worldwide.
For more info: Rory Peck Awards homepage
The San Francisco-based ITVS is inviting international producers to create documentaries for US television audiences. ITVS is looking for extraordinary programmes which “explore globally significant themes and issues, represent diverse communities, advance underrepresented points of view, inspire public dialogue, and tell powerful, fascinating stories.”
The first International Call in 2005 generated over 300 aplications from 75 countries. Proposals must be received at the ITVS office by 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time on Friday, February 9, 2007. Programs must be in production or post-production. Applicants must submit a sample reel of their work-in-progress that is at least five minutes in length. For this International Call, ITVS will consider hour-long and feature length documentaries for television broadcast. Project funding ranges from $10,000 to $150,000.
For more info, check out http://www.itvs.org/producers/international_guidelines.html
