When a Stuttgart theatre director assembles an amateur and all-Turkish cast of women in his modern production of Medea, more drama explodes off stage than on. Designed to examine Eastern and Western images of women, the production asks each cast member to contribute her own personal story to the play’s experimental script. Headstrong housewife Aysel is the only headscarf-wearing Turk in the bunch and soon takes it upon her sassy self to defend her traditional views against the more modern ideas of the others. Cameras capture exceedingly intelligent discussions about religion, «oppression», and sex in this politically and religiously diverse group. But as the exchanges become increasingly personal, Aysel soon finds her commitment to the play and her newly found friendships put to the test. Torn between her desire for freedom and her own traditions, Aysel gets entangled in a conflict with her beliefs and is forced to question her life to date. 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary- und Animated Film: Best Film of German Competition.

Anders østergaard’s award-winning documentary shows a rare inside look into the 2007 uprising in Myanmar through the cameras of the independent journalist group, Democratic Voice of Burma. While 100,000 people (including 1,000s of Buddhist monks) took to the streets to protest the country’s repressive regime that has held them hostage for over 40 years, foreign news crews were banned to enter and the Internet was shut down. The Democratic Voice of Burma, a collective of approximately 30 anonymous and underground video journalists (VJs) recorded these historic and devastating events on handycams and smuggled the footage out of the country, where it was broadcast worldwide via satellite. International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2008: Joris Ivens Competition Award

There is a hidden society at the end of the world. One thousand men and women live together under unbelievably close quarters in Antarctica, risking their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science. Now, for the first time, an outsider has been admitted. In his first documentary since GRIZZLY MAN, Werner Herzog, accompanied only by his cameraman, traveled to Antarctica, with rare access to the raw beauty and raw humanity of the ultimate Down Under. ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Herzog’s latest meditation on nature, explores this land of Fire, Ice and corrosive Solitude. Nomination for an Oscar-2008 for the Best documentary Edinburgh International Film Festival 2008: Best Documentary

From Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast-moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson`s life-his intense and ill-fated relationship with the Hells Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern`s 1972 presidential campaign, and much more.

The film-maker Erwin Wagenhofer presents us with a shocking documentary that follows the tracks of our money through the worldwide finance system. Wagenhofer looks behind the scenes of the colorful backdrop of banks and insurance companies. What does our pension provision have to do with the property blow-up in Spain? We don’t have to buy a home there in order to be involved. As soon as we open an account, we’re part of the world-wide finance market – whether we want to be or not. The bank enters our account into the global money circuit. Possibly banks or pension funds lend our money to speculators. We customers have no idea where our debtor lives and what he does to pay our interest fees. Most of us aren’t even interested, because we like to follow the call of the banks: «Let your money work». But money can’t work. Only people, animals or machines can work.

Hanna is the Polish mother in all her glory. Her son is 53 and a psychiatrist by profession, who can’t break away from her despite the fact that he can explain his and her neurosis by the book. And now he has dared to find himself a wife Ewa, a nurse by profession, who doesn’t stand a chance with his overprotective mother, (obviously «she’s a whore»). The mother plays piano and sings soprano, the son draws figures with blurred faces and missing limbs – a cultured family, but with the women having come into their world, the conflict begins. 48th Krakow Film Festival: Best Documentary Film 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary- und Animated Film: Best Short Film

Jackie, Mildred, Eureka, Sdudla, and Thuli are the women behind Bobbi Bear, a nonprofit organization based in Durban, South Africa, that counsels sexually abused children and works to bring their abusers to justice. Born out of a recognition of cultural stigmas that discourage reporting abuse and inadequate methods of communicating with young victims, Bobbi Bear developed a method of letting children use teddy bears to explain their abuse. Since 1992, the multiracial staff has become the fearless and powerful voice for those victims who would otherwise continue to live in fear, powerless against their oppressors and ignored by the legal system. Director Kim Longinotto adeptly and intimately follows Bobbi Bear staff in difficult direct sessions with children and consultations with family members, and on raids with authorities to arrest the perpetrators of these heinous acts. Facing tragedy daily as part of their advocacy work and, heartbreakingly for some, in their personal lives, the women draw strength from each other and find hope despite the suffering around them. Sundance 2009: World Documentary Award

There are countries one seldom hears about and if we do, we read about presidential elections, scandals and earthquakes. Then they’re forgotten again, until the next election, the next scandal, the next earthquake. El Olvido is about a forgotten city (Lima), a forgotten history (that of Peru) and a forgotten people (the Peruvians). With irony as their loved weapon for survival, they have to forget as well, in order not to give way to cynicism, hatred and grief. El Olvido is about remembering the old days when life – despite class differences, corruption and violence – was still good: waiters, bartenders and shopkeepers who are fighting a losing battle and have lost everything. 51st Leipzig Film Festival: Silver Dove for the Best Full-length Documentary, Ecumenical Jury Award and FIPRESCI prize

Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the extraordinary story of a small band of Liberian women who came together in the midst of a bloody civil war, took on the violent warlords and corrupt Charles Taylor regime, and won a long-awaited peace for their shattered country in 2003. As the rebel noose tightened upon Monrovia, and peace talks faced collapse, the women of Liberia – Christian and Muslims united – formed a thin but unshakable white line between the opposing forces, and successfully demanded an end to the fighting– armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions. Their demonstrations culminated in the exile of Charles Taylor and the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state, and marked the vanguard of a new wave of women taking control of their political destiny around the world. Tribeca Film Festival-2008: Best Feature Documentary

The year 2001 marked the death of Lama Konchog, one of the great contemporary Tibetan masters. The Dalai Lama gives Lama Konchog’s pupil, Tenzin Zopa, the task of locating his master’s incarnation. This ‘unmistaken child’ must be found within the next four years otherwise it will be too difficult to separate him from his parents. Tenzin Zopa became Lama Konchog’s pupil of his own volition at the age of seven. He spent 21 years living in close proximity with his master – until his death. His loneliness is compounded by the responsibility of his quest: to secretly find his master’s reincarnation in the body of a small boy who could be living anywhere in the world. His mission takes Tenzin to remote mountainous areas and to tiny villages where nothing seems to have changed in centuries. Tenzin travels by helicopter, by donkey and on foot. With the aid of astrologers, the interpretation of dreams and the advice of villagers he finally ascertains a boy who could be the one. 24th Haifa International Film Festival: Best Documentary 49th Krakow Film Festival: The Golden Horn Award

How do you decide when it’s time to let go? For young Jorgis, the star voice of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir, the moment is upon him. With just a few weeks to go before an important concert, his voice has suddenly begun to break, forcing the fourteen-year-old into a state of transition he is not prepared for. He must choose between damaging his vocal cords trying to hit the high notes or dashing his hopes by walking away. This tender portrayal of a universal, yet intensely personal, rite of passage resonates well beyond its twenty-six minutes. Full Frame Documentary

Former thief and mobster, Michel Vaujour always chose to break for freedom over a life behind bars, adventure over a life of submission. He has spent 27 years in prison – 17 of those in solitary confinement. He succeeded in carrying out amazing escapes with toy guns worthy of a Hollywood script. The most notorious involved a firearm made out of soap and a daring helicopter break out organized by his wife from the roof of a jail. He was finally released on parole in 2003. If his life story is at times an exhilarating ride, he also experienced some of the most challenging conditions the penal system can bestow. This isolation forced him to continuously confront himself. The reward has been self-enlightenment. Fabienne Godet’s film is an uplifting and universal story of a remarkable transformation. Michel Vaujour’s greatest escape was not from jail but from himself: the liberation of the mind and ultimately, the soul.

Danny Hanoch is a Holocaust survivor. In his words, he has a BA (Bachelor of Auschwitz). This impressive man, who never sheds a tear, has succeeded joining every possible delegation to Poland and the death camps, but failed to do one thing: convince his children, Miri and Sagi, to visit the landscape of his lost childhood with him. In six days, inside one van, father, children and a film crew travel “that” Europe, traversing the terrain where Danny was forced to “camp” again and again. When they reach Birkenau, the “final destination”, Danny wants to fulfill a life-long fantasy: to spend the night in his old barracks, on his old bunk, with his own children. Around a tray of pizza, bought in the nearby town of Auschwitz, father and children have the inevitable blow-out filled with black humor and great pain. 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary- und Animated Film: Prize of the Youth Jury of the Filmschule Leipzig 49th Krakow Film Festival: The Golden Dragon Award

All that is known for certain about Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) is that he was a musical genius, and one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. The rest-from his music to his private life-remains shrouded in mystery. With the discovery of his personal diaries, part the Prokofiev enigma can finally come to light. The composer fled Russia shortly after the 1917 October revolution. For close to two decades, he struggled to build a career in North America and Europe. In 1936, he made a decision that stunned the world: he returned to Russia at a time when Stalin’s purges were at their apex. 55 years after his death, based on previously unexplored sources-particularly Prokofiev’s diary, which richly chronicles the art and artists of his time-this film examines a defining period in the great composer’s life: his years spent outside Russia, from 1918 to 1936. 42nd International Houston Film Festival: Special Jury Award

This raw authentic documentary film tells the story of René whose life was being captured on camera since he was seventeen. The camera followed his hopeless journey between prison and brief periods outside the prison walls. In 2008 the film comes to an end, leaving the now 37-yearold René as a sick man who still gets in trouble with the law and who is also the author of two published books. René’s story begins in prison under socialist posters, continues through the so-called Velvet Revolution of 1989 and gets a seemingly happy conclusion with the amnesty decree issued by President Václav Havel. Yet René soon heads back to prison and also celebrated EU accession from behind the bars. During the years spent in prison - sentenced mainly for theft - René had his whole body covered in tattoos, escaped from prison only to be soon recaptured, burgled the director’s home, was involved in a couple of romantic relationships, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as well as a high IQ. René displays his outlook on life by flashing his «Fuck of People» tattoo on his neck. 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary- und Animated Film: Best film

Sergei the Healer is a touching and warm depiction of the life in a small Russian Karelian village, where young Sergei grows up in the middle of the most fabulous primeval forests in North Europe. He learns the skills needed for survival from his father Santeri and from the village’s grand old man: boat builder, Sulo. The documentary follows Sergei as he grows up and the struggle of Venehjärvi villages’s existence over a five year period. Sergei will learn how to build a suitable rowing boat, how to hunt a capercailzie and how to carry on the other ancient traditions of the village. He will grow up to be a man, and the future will determine whether he stays to help build up his home village. The coming half decade is a critical time for the whole of Viena Karelia and for Sergei’s family’s effort to rescue the threatened culture and the villages in decline.

Every year photographer Murray Fredericks ventures to the middle of Lake Eyre, a desolate salt fl at in South Australia. He pitches camp at its very core, with neither land nor water in sight. Fredericks’s journey isn’t a quest for high adventure or spiritual transcendence-this much is clear whenever he casually picks up his cell phone to chat with his family back home. Rather, he sets out to see-to really see-what happens in a place that might literally be the middle of nowhere. Atlanta Film Festival 365 (2009): Best Short Documentary

Tyson is acclaimed indie director James Toback’s stylistically inventive portrait of a mesmerizing Mike Tyson. The film ranges from Tyson’s earliest memories of growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn through his entry into the world of boxing, to his rollercoaster ride in the funhouse of worldwide fame and fortunes won and lost. It is the story of a legendary and uniquely controversial international athletic icon, a figure conjuring radical questions of race and class. In its depiction of a man rising from the most debased circumstances to unlimited heights, destroyed by his own hubris, TYSON emerges as a modern day version of classic Greek tragedy. 61st Cannes Film Festival: Regard Knockout Award

Director John Maringouin set out to make an environmentally aware documentary about an eccentric, larger-than-life Slovenian swimmer. In February 2007 Martin Strel began an insane attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the world’s most dangerous river, the Amazon. The Fish Man, as he was called by the local tribes, almost died in the process several times. Towards the end of his marathon ordeal his blood pressure was at heart attack level, his entire body full of subcutaneous larvae and besieged by dehydration and exhaustion. Martin is an endurance swimmer who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube and the Yangtze prior to the Amazon – to highlight their pollution to the world. During this epic journey he suffered from blisters, sunburn, exotic stomach illnesses, all the while trying to avoid piranhas, anacondas, crocodiles, alligators, river sharks, and a small parasitic fish known as the candiru. Martin is also a rather overweight horse-burger loving Slovenian in his fifties, who drinks two bottles of red wine a day… even when swimming. Sundance Film Festival 2009: Award for the Best Cinematography

On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York’s twin towers, then the world’s tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. Following six and a half years of dreaming of the towers, Petit spent eight months in New York City planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit was faced with numerous extraordinary challenges: he had to find a way to bypass the WTC’s security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. The rigging was done by night in complete secrecy. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan… American Academy Award: Best Documentary (2008) 43rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Best Documentary Sundance Film Festival 2008: Audience Award & Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary

Beauty, love, work... sometimes it just isn’t worth getting out of bed for. Life can be that boring. Bloody Mondays & Strawberry Pies shows why nearly everybody keeps boredom frenetically at bay. Some are successful in their enterprise while others achieve only a successful faÇade. The intriguing emotion boredom, which can be positive or negative, forces us to consider why we do the things we do. The film pleads for profound boredom as the solution for the harrowing emptiness of our existence. Long periods of doing nothing should not be avoided, but rather welcomed, so that thoughts yet un-thought, surprising experiences and daring ideas can come our way. John Malkovich gives voice to the inner bored human being. He crawls under your skin prompting questions: What is the most imaginative way of seeing? How many people in the world are like me? The answers slumber in the silent Sahara of your mind. Netherlands Online Film Festival 2008: Best Feature Documentary