2009 DocuWest Films:
Feature Film Presentation
Kimjongilia
Director: N.C. Heikin
From: USA
TRT: 75 mins
Showing: Thursday, August 6, 7-9 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: Accepted into the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Kimjongilia delves into the brutal regime of Kim Jong-Il. This documentary reveals the shocking truth about North Korean forced labor camps as survivors talk about the horrors the experienced.
Feature Length Documentary
Feature documentaries with a total running time from 61-180 minutes.
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Beyond Our Differences
Director: Peter Bisanz
TRT: 73 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 6-8 pm and Sunday, August 9, 2-4 pm in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: With all of the problems facing the world today including war, poverty, weapons, environmental degradation, starvation, overpopulation and severe desperation among millions, people are longing for meaning. Many seek answers in spirituality, but often faith and religion are hijacked by a fundamentalist few who use the name of God to promote their own ends. With this dichotomy in mind, the documentary film Beyond Our Differences calls upon key religious leaders, politicians, and luminaries in their respective fields to tackle the most complex issues in the modern age, and we ask what inspires them to affect positive change.
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Beyond the Call
Director: Adrian Belic
TRT: 82 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 6-8 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
and Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: In a Mother Teresa meets Indiana Jones adventure three middle-aged men, former soldiers and modern day knights travel the world delivering life saving humanitarian aid directly into the hands of civilians in some of the most dangerous yet beautiful places on Earth, the front lines of war.
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David Hostetler: The Last Dance
Director: Casey Hayward
TRT: 68 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm with Grandma Builds an Earthship in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: After 80 years, world-renowned artist David Hostetler reflects on a life and career filled with more turns and curves than the women he has become so well-known for carving. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-see home movies and images from Hostetler's past, the film explores the roots of his talent and passions. True to his life, the film is a medley of jazz, wood and women that leads the viewer on a journey to the heart of the creative process and the forces that shape all great art.
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House of Numbers
Director: Brent Leung
TRT: 88 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 7:30-9:30 pm and Sunday, August 9, 2-4 pm
in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: In House of Numbers, an AIDS film like no other, the HIV/AIDS story is being rewritten. This is the first film to present the uncensored POVs of virtually all the major players; in their own settings, in their own words -- it rocks the foundation upon which all conventional wisdom regarding HIV/AIDS is based. House of Numbers could well be the opening volley in a battle to bring sanity and clarity to an epidemic gone awry.
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I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store.
Director: Brendan Toller
TRT: 77 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller unleashes I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store, adocumentary feature examining why over 3000 independent record storeshave closed across the U.S. in the past decade. Greedy record labels, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big boxstores, Ecommerce, shoddy 'stars' pushed by big money, and the digitalrevolution all pose threats on the very well being of our favorite record stores. Will these stores die? Will they survive? Featuring- Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Ian Mackaye of Dischord Records Fugazi/Minor Threat, activist/author Noam Chomsky, Mike Wattof the Minutemen, Lenny Kaye guitarist of the Patti Smith Group, ChrisFrantz of the Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club, guitar composer Glenn Branca, Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, Pat Carney of the Black Keys, punk author Legs McNeil, rock photographer Bob Gruen, BP Helium guitarist from Of Montreal, and many many indie record stores acrossthe U.S. of A!
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Keep Eye on Ball: The Hashim Khan Story
Director: Josh Easdon
TRT: 83 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 5-7 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: Now 95-years-old, Hashim Khan’s passion for squash has taken him on an eight-decade journey crossing economic, geographic and generational boundaries and transcending social, cultural and religious biases. A devout Muslim and proud Pashtun, Hashim’s fierce competitive instincts, discipline and charisma fueled his unique life journey as the father of modern squash and Pakistan’s first national hero.
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Left Field
Director: Ben Steger
TRT: 84 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 8-10 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
and Sunday, August 9, 4-6 pm in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: Left Field is the story of a unique community of misfits, artists, musicians, geeks, and party animals whose lives coalesce around the grade school game of kickball. The film features Sarah Hart and KC Haywood, two modern American nomads that stumble upon a wild, fledgling community of anarchistic kickballers upon arriving in Chicago. They quickly find themselves immersed in a vibrant culture of creativity, love, play, and excess that leads down an unexpected, fateful road.
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Long Road North
Director: Ian Hinkle
TRT: 94 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 6-8 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
and Sunday, August 9, 12-2 pm in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: The plan: to cycle halfway across the planet. From the tip of Patagonia to the far reaches of the Canadian Arctic this adventure would change their perspectives of the world forever. Despite what they thought they knew about the world... they came to see that they hardly knew it at all.
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National Sacrifice Zone:
Colorado and the Cost of Energy Independence
Director: Joseph Brown
TRT: 59 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 5-7 pm followed by an in-person filmmaker discussion in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: National Sacrifice Zone: Colorado and the Cost of Energy Independence is a feature length documentary that takes a critical look at the effects of the most current Rocky Mountain energy boom. Including commentary from both energy 'experts' and local individuals affected by energy development, National Sacrifice Zone tells the story of the conflict between consumption and the environmental degradation taking place in our own back yards.
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Rain Falls from Earth: Surviving Cambodia's Darkest Hour
Director: Steve McClure
TRT: 97 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 7:30-9:30 pm in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: Rain Falls from Earth is a story of courage, a story of survival and a story of eventual triumph over the Communist regime that was responsible for the deaths of over 2 million people. The voices of many Cambodians are heard as they convey their thoughts, ideas and emotions; the very things they were forced to abandon in the killing fields of Cambodia. Narrated by Academy Award nominated actor, Sam Waterston, this film gives a voice to those whose lives were senselessly lost.
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The Road to Fallujah
Director: Mark Manning
TRT: 80 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 10-12 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
and Sunday, August 9, 12-2 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: The Road to Fallujah follows the story of filmmaker Mark Manning, the only westerner to live with the people of Fallujah, Iraq immediately following the November 2004 battle that destroyed their ancient and holy city. With unique access to both sides of the conflict, the film gives a voice to the people directly involved and affected by the war, and takes an in-depth and humanizing look at the issues in Iraq, breaking through the myths and misconceptions surrounding the violence and offering alternative solutions to war.
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Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy
Director: Laurie House
TRT: 99 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 10-12 pm and Saturday, August 8, 9:30-11:30 pm
in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: Skatopia: 88 Acres of Anarchy is a feature documentary that follows one of skateboarding's most infamous underground figures. Pro-skater Brewce Martin is the self-declared "dictator" of a rural Appalachian skate scene so extreme that MTV's bad-boy Bam Margera fled the property on his first visit. The movie follows Brewce for a tumultuous year as he struggles to keep Skatopia afloat. Though he declares skating his "prime directive," the film reveals a fiercely driven entrepreneur determined to achieve success on his own terms.
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Sweet Crude
Director: Sandy Cioffi
TRT: 94 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 1-3 pm in Foothills Art Center
and Sunday, August 9, 12-2 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: In the summer of 2008, militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) declared an oil war in Nigeria. This was one of the biggest spikes yet on a radar screen dotted with conflict and tragedy. Sweet Crude is the story of the Niger Delta; of the villagers of Oporoza, headquarters of the insurgency; and of members of the armed resistance who, in the three years since we met them as college students, became the young men of MEND.
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talhotblond
Director: Barbara Schroeder
TRT: 83 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 5-7 pm in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: talhotblond is the true story of an Internet love triangle. No one ever meets in person, yet one man ends up dead, the other in prison. And the girl they were both so hot for? You won't want to miss this ending!
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Till You're Told to Stop
Director: Ruth Somalo
TRT: 80 mins
From: United Kingdom
Showing: Friday, August 7, 8-10 pm in Foothills Art Center
and Sunday, August 9, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: Till You're Told To Stop is a unique independent film that follows the career of singer British songwriter James Blunt. We witness the steps the singer took to start in the music industry in 2004 after resigning from his post in the army, through to his enormous worldwide success with his debut album "Back To Bedlam." What happens between the summer of 2004 and the summer of 2007 (publishing deal, the early gigs, release, promotion, tour and success in the UK and the US of the album "Back to Bedlam") constitutes one of the most amazing musical journeys in decades.
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Whatever It Takes
Director: Christopher Wong
TRT: 90 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 8-10 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: Visionary rookie principal fights to lead at-risk high school students from the shadows of the South Bronx to the promised land of college.
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Documentary Medium Length and Essay Forms
Medium length documentaries and document type film essays with a total running time between 30 - 60 minutes.
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$100 a Day
Directors: Gwen Essegian and Mark Ligon
TRT: 34 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm with A Song for Ourselves and Saturday, August 9, 9:30-11:30 pm
with My Son the Pornographer in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screenings followed by Q&A with California State Senator Joe Simitian
Brief Synopsis: On December 9, 1991 Rick Walker was sentenced to 26 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. False testimony and questionable legal tactics put Walker behind bars for 12 years.$100 a Day is a compelling story of gross injustice, political partisanship and the heroic struggle to prove Walker's innocence. Once exonerated, he faced another barrier to justice...the California State Legislature...would he be wronged by the system twice?
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Free Swim
Director: Jennifer Galvin
TRT: 50 mins
From: USA
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm with SAMO in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: Free Swim is a documentary film about the paradox of coastal people not knowing how to swim. Taking place on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas we follow a group of kids as they overcome their fears, gain confidence and reconnect with their environment by learning to swim in open waters. With fresh memories of a friend drowning and the conflicts of growing tourism, for these kids it's not just about floating, but gaining new skills for their future.
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Grandma Builds an Earthship
Director: Kent Gunnufson
TRT: 59 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm with David Hostetler: The Last Dance in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: Follow a 67-year-old grandmother's story as she describes her growth as she physically builds a totally energy self-sufficient home at 9000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.
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Mayomi
Director: Carol Salter
TRT: 50 mins
From: United Kingdom
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 7:30-9:30 pm with Waiting for Women
in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: Mayomi is about a young Sri Lankan woman's unconditional love, and obligations to herfamily. This film is an intimate portrait of Mayomi's struggle to gain independence, whileholding her troublesome family together in post-tsunami Sri Lanka.
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My Son the Pornographer
Director: Peter Campbell
TRT: 45 mins
From: Canada
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 9:30-11:30 pm with $100 a Day
in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: My Son the Pornographer is a story about values, life choices, guilt and, ultimately, about the love between a father and a son.
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SAMO: The Art and Influence of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Director: Bethany Ward-Lawe
TRT: 50 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm with Home is Where You Find It and Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm with Free Swim
in Foothills Art Center
Brief Synopsis: SAMO is a documentary exploring the life, work, influence and legend of 1980s artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
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A Song For Ourselves
Director: Tadashi Nakamura
TRT: 35 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm with $100 a Day in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: A Song for Ourselves is an intimate journey into the life and music of Asian American Movement troubadour Chris Iijima.
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Waiting for Women
Director: Estephan Wagner
TRT: 30 mins
From: United Kingdom
Showing: Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm with Home is Where You Find It
in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
and Saturday, August 8, 7:30-9:30 pm with Mayomi
in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Brief Synopsis: In the remote Spanish village of Riofrio most women have left. Only men are left without the slightest possibility to find a relationship. But they have a plan...Waiting for women is a heart warming documentary about love and solitude, about gender, migration and hope.
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Documentary Short
Short documentaries with a total time of up to 30 minutes in length.
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Act As If
Director: Melissa Johnson
TRT: 18 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Sunday, August 9, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Town of Sun, Black Tide & Whales, Not on View and Dying Wish
Brief Synopsis: One woman’s secret to winning at life is to “act as if”, which transforms her from a feisty blue collar Boston kid into the championship basketball coach at Harvard where she masterminds one of the greatest victories of all time and overcomes cancer using the power of positive thinking. ACT AS IF is the story of Kathy Delaney-Smith, a diminutive jester-who-became-queen.
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Arresting Ana
Director: Lucie Schwartz
TRT: 25 mins
From: France; USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 10-12 pm and Saturday, August 8, 9:30-11:30 pm in Foothills Art Center
Screening with My World of White, Black & Color and Long Distance
Brief Synopsis: Arresting Ana tells the story of the potential criminalization of the pro-anorexia movement in France. The film follows two women: Sarah, an 18 year old college student with a 'pro-Ana' blog, an online forum on which she shares tips and tricks with other young women on how to become anorexic, and Valerie Boyer, a passionate legislator who is proposing a ground-breaking bill that aims to ban pro-Ana websites by issuing $30,000 fines and 2-year prison sentences to members of this online underground movement.
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Dying Wish
Director: Karen van Vuuren
TRT: 29 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Sunday, August 9, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Town of Sun, Black Tide & Whales, Not on View and Act As If
Brief Synopsis: Dying Wish is the story of Michael Miller, an eighty-year old, retired surgeon with end-stage pancreatic cancer who chose to stop eating and drinking to hasten and ease his death.
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Home is Where you Find It
Director: Alcides Soares
TRT: 34 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm with SAMO in Foothills Art Center
and Saturday, August 8, 3-5 pm with Waiting for Women
in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Brief Synopsis: A sixteen year old AIDS orphan directs a documentary about finding a new family is Maputo, Mozambique. |
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Living To Dream
Director: Eva Kosmas
TRT: 17 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
and Sunday, August 9, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Point of Entry and Without Papers
Brief Synopsis: The issues facing undocumented college students are explored in this documentary short. The film focuses on Andrea, a junior at Loyola Marymount University, and her struggles to achieve a higher education and fit in amongst the college crowd. Immigration experts, family, and friends discuss Andrea and the many difficulties facing undocumented youth today in America.
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Long Distance
Director: Moritz Siebert
TRT: 28 mins
From: United Kingdom
Showing: Friday, August 7, 10-12 pm and Saturday, August 8, 9:30-11:30 pm in Foothills Art Center
Screening with My World of White, Black & Color and Arresting Ana
Brief Synopsis: Abiyot runs for money, every weekend at a different race. He left Ethiopia to try and re-launch his running career in the US.With every aspect of his daily routine centred on his training, his footsteps not only dictate the rhythm of his life, but also become the pervasive rhythm of the film. A film about aspiration, endurance and the pursuit of the American dream.
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My World of White, Black and Color
Director: Stephen Stolee
TRT: 14 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 10-12 pm and Saturday, August 8, 9:30-11:30 pm in Foothills Art Center
Screening with Arresting Ana and Long Distance
Brief Synopsis: A number of school children are interviewed following their participation in the creation of a work of art based on the theme of My World of White, Black and Color. The interviews are intercut with music and close-ups of their art works. The kids' comments tell us what they know about their world and what they are likely to carry with them as they become the shapers and keepers of our culture.
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Not On View
Directors: Benedict Campbell and Veena Rao
TRT: 5 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Sunday, August 9, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Town of Sun, Black Tide & Whales, Act As If and Dying Wish
Brief Synopsis: John L. Stewart's private art collection raises questions of art's place in society.
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Point of Entry
Director: Zeus Quijano, Jr.
TRT: 27 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
and Sunday, August 9, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Living to Dream and Without Papers
Brief Synopsis: In a time when the nation focuses on the dangers of illegal immigration, this documentary follows the path of one young illegal immigrant’s dream of helping his family both in America and in Mexico.
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Town of Sun, the Black Tide and Whales
Director: Matias Camozzi
TRT: 17 mins
From: USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
Sunday, August 9, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Town of Sun, Black Tide & Whales, Not on View and Dying Wish
Brief Synopsis: Town of the Sun, the Black Tide and Whales is a short documentary that tells the story of a community and its relationship with the hunt of whales and dolphins, as they face increasing criticism from the the western world especially through the actions of environmental organizations such as the Sea Shepherd. |
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Without Papers
Director: Florencia Krochik
TRT: 11 mins
From: Argentina; USA
Showing: Friday, August 7, 2-4 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Foss Auditorium
and Sunday, August 9, 4-6 pm in the American Mountaineering Center's Screening Room D
Screening with Living to Dream and Point of Entry
Brief Synopsis: Without Papers chronicles the lives of two undocumented students attending college in America.
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