Int'l Doc Association Presents 14th DocuWeeks Theatrical Doc Showcase, 7/30-8/19

A moving history of one of the most harrowing and inspirational chapters of the Civil Rights movement, a behind the scenes look at the 1,400-year-old conflict between Islam and Christianity, an investigation of the unexplainable phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder, and a mash-up of "Glee" and "High School Musical" are all part of the wide-ranging lineup of films announced today for inclusion in the International Documentary Association's 14th Annual DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase.

Screening from July 30th through August 19th in Los Angeles at the ArcLight Hollywood (6360 W. Sunset Boulevard) and in New York City at the IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street), the 2010 edition of DocuWeeks^TM will present 17 feature films and 5 shorts from over a dozen different countries in theatrical runs designed to qualify the films for consideration for The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' annual Oscar® Awards - and give documentary fans a chance to catch some of the best examples of the genre.

"Once again DocuWeeks^TM gives film-goers in Los Angeles and New York City their first opportunity to see some of the year's most celebrated and talked-about documentary films," says IDA Executive Director Michael Lumpkin. "With award-winning films from Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, SXSW, and Silverdocs, this year's program is an outstanding collection of must-see films." 

Features appearing in this year's DocuWeeks^TM Theatrical Documentary Showcase are: Apaporis, Budrus, Colony, FAMILY AFFAIR, For Once in My Life, Freedom Riders, HolyWars, Louder Than a Bomb, MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS, Music From the Big House, My Perestroika, Pushing the Elephant, Quest for Honor, Steam of Life, Summer Pasture, This Way of Life and Waste Land.

DocuWeeks^TM will also present five documentary short films including: KEEP DANCING, Killing in the Name, The Labyrinth, Mozambique and Sun Come Up.

(See below for more information on the individual films.)

Tickets for individual films at the ArcLight Hollywood are $13.50 for general admission, $12.50 for IDA and ArcLight members with online purchase. Senior tickets priced at $11.00 are available through online member purchase only. Tickets for individual films at the IFC Center are $13.00 for general admission, $8.00 for IDA members and $9.00 for seniors and children. Tickets can be purchased at the respective box offices, or at www.documentary.org beginning July 16, 2010. A complete schedule and additional information about each film can be found on the International Documentary Association's website at www.documentary.org or call 213-534-3600 x7447 for ticket information.
Sponsors for this year's DocuWeeks^TM include HBO Documentary Films, Langley Productions, The Documentary Channel, FotoKem, Westdoc Conference, Chainsaw and Los Angeles Center Studios.

Since its premiere in 1997 DocuWeeks^TM has qualified over 161 short and feature length films for Oscar consideration and yielded 17 nominations and 7 winners. Documentaries presented in past DocuWeeks^TM programs include Oscar® winners Smile Pinki (2008), Taxi To The Dark Side (2007) and The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006), as well as Oscar® Nominees Rabbit à la Berlin (2009),The Betrayal (2008), War/Dance (2007), Salim Baba (2007) and Sari's Mother (2007). 

DocuWeeks is a trademark of the International Documentary Association.

Oscar and Academy Award are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 

About IDA

The International Documentary Association (IDA) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in 1982 to support documentary filmmaking worldwide. At IDA, we believe that the power and artistry of the documentary are vital to cultures and societies globally, and we exist to serve the needs of those who create this art form. Our mission is to provide community, education, specific support services, opportunities and related resources to our clients, the documentary filmmakers.

About ArcLight Cinemas

ArcLight Cinemas, created by Pacific Theatres, represents an evolution in the movie going experience. ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, which opened in March 2002, Arclight Sherman Oaks, and the new ArcLight Pasadena location offer an unprecedented combination of technology, amenities, comfort, and customer service. Facilities include the historic Cinerama Dome (only at the Hollywood location) and state-of-the-art "black box" auditoriums as well as a café bar and a cinema-focused gift shop. Tickets can be purchased online without a fee and printed at home, at the theaters' automated ticketing kiosks, and at the lobby box office. ArcLight offers a free membership program with purchasing rewards, discounts, and other members-only benefits. ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood is located at 6360 W. Sunset Boulevard, between Vine and Ivar. ArcLight Sherman Oaks is located in the Sherman Oaks Galleria at 15303 Ventura Blvd., at the corner of Sepulveda and Ventura. Arclight Pasadena is located in the Paseo Colorado Mall at 336 E. Colorado Blvd. For membership, tickets and show times, visit www.arclightcinemas.com. For more information about ArcLight visit www.arclightexperience.com.

About IFC Center

IFC Center, a five-screen, state-of-the-art cinema in the heart of New York's Greenwich Village, opened in June 2005 following an extensive renovation of the historic Waverly Theater. Bringing the very best in new foreign-language, American independent, and documentary features to NYC audiences, IFC Center is also known for its innovative repertory series and festivals, for showing short films before its regular features in the ongoing "Short Attention Span Cinema" program, and for special events such as the guest-curated "Movie Nights" and frequent in-person appearances by filmmakers. The theater's lobby concession stand features a unique array of food and merchandise, from organic popcorn, locally made vegan baked goods and David Lynch coffee to CineMetal t-shirts, books and a carefully curated selection of classic, foreign and independent films on DVD and Blu-Ray. IFC Center also offers a membership program that includes ticket and merchandise discounts, free members-only screenings and other awards. For additional theater information, current and upcoming program details and more, visit www.ifccenter.com

DocuWeeks^TM2010: COMPLETE FILM LINEUP

FEATURES:

Apaporis

Director: Antonio Dorado Z.

Writer: Antonio Dorado

Producers: Alberto Dorado, Juan Carlos Paredes, Omar Dorado

Fundación Imagen Latina

72 min. Colombia

Apaporis follows the journey of ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes, who in 1941 set off on an epic 12-year research trip down the Amazon and through the Andes, navigating unknown rivers, collecting new plant species, establishing friendships with indigenous tribes and uncovering age-old secrets of sacred plants. The filmmakers navigated the Apaporis River and sought the cultures that Schultes found with surprising results. Apaporis records the present state of the customs and beliefs of the communities, such as the use of psychotropic plants, and the threats to community survival posed by increasing globalization.
Budrus

Director/Producer/Writer: Julia Bacha

Producers: Ronit Avni, Rula Salameh

Executive Producers: Ronit Avni, Jehane Noujaim

Just Vision

81 min. USA/Israel/Palestinian Territories
Ayed Morrar took leave of his comfortable job at the Palestinian Authority upon hearing that the Israeli government was planning to build a separation barrier through Budrus, his small agricultural village. He convened a town-hall meeting, invited Israeli civilians, and formed a movement whose motto, "We Can Do It," resonates with community organizers worldwide. To everyone's surprise, Ayed became the leader of the first unarmed movement to successfully protect and even expand Palestinian territory-an accomplishment made possible in large part by Ayed's 15-year-old daughter Iltezam, who launched a women's contingent that quickly moved to the front lines.
Colony

Directors: Carter Gunn, Ross McDonnell

Producers: Morgan Bushe, Macdara Kelleher

Fastnet Films

84 min. Ireland/USA
The unexplainable phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder has left landscapes of empty beehives all across America, threatening not only the beekeeping industry but our food supply. As scientists and beekeepers search for the cause, Colony captures the struggle within the beekeeping community to save the honeybee through the efforts of veteran beekeeper Davis Mendes and newcomers Lance and Victor Seppi, two Young Brothers getting into beekeeping when most are getting out. As Mendes tries to save the nation's collapsing hives, the Seppis try to keep their business alive amidst a collapsing economy.

FAMILY AFFAIR

Director/Producer/Writer: Chico Colvard

Producers: Chico Colvard, Liz Garbus

Executive Producers: Abigail Disney, Dan Cogan

C-LineFilms, LLC

82 min. USA

"The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable."

-Judith Herman, M.D.

Like a scene torn from The Color Purple or Capturing The Friedmans, this deeply personal and uncompromising documentary examines the complex levels of pedophilia and how it can manipulate and control an entire family for life. FAMILY AFFAIR is also a story about resilience, survival and understanding a child's capacity to accommodate a parent's past crimes in order to satisfy a basic longing for family.

For Once in My Life

Directors: Jim Bigham, Mark Moormann

Producer: Jim Bigham

Executive Producer: Lourdes Little

Big Blue Box Productions

91 min. USA

For Once in My Life is a documentary about a unique band of singers and musicians, and their journey to show the world the greatness-and killer soundtrack-within each of them. The band members have a wide range of mental and physical disabilities, as well as musical abilities that extend into ranges of pure genius. In a cinema vérité style, the film explores the struggles and triumphs, and the healing power of music, as the band members' unique talents are nurtured to challenge the world's perceptions.
Freedom Riders

Director/Producer/Writer: Stanley Nelson

Producer: Laurens Grant

Executive Producer: Mark Samels

Firelight Films

105 min. USA

Freedom Riders is the first feature-length film about a courageous band of civil rights activists called the Freedom Riders who risked their lives to challenge segregation in interstate transport in the American South during the spring and summer of 1961. The attention their movement generated forced the federal government to take down Jim Crow signs of "whites only" and "colored only," allowing every American to travel freely-a legacy we enjoy today.
HolyWars

Director/Writer: Stephen Marshall
Producers: Lisa Kawamoto Hsu, Allison Kunzman, Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody, Brian Beletic
Executive Producers: Brian Beletic, Brian Carmody, Patrick Milling Smith

Smuggler Films

82 min. USA/UK/Lebanon/Pakistan
Touching down in four hotbeds of religious fundamentalism-Pakistan, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and heartland America-HolyWars goes behind the scenes of the 1,400-year-old conflict between Islam and Christianity. The film follows a danger-seeking Christian missionary and a radical Muslim Irish convert who both believe in a coming apocalyptic battle, after which their religion will ultimately rule the world. Tracking their lives from the onset of the "War on Terror" to the election of Barack Obama, HolyWars shows that even the most radical of believers can be transformed by our changing world.

Louder Than a Bomb

Directors/Producers: Greg Jacobs, Jon Siskel

Siskel/Jacobs Productions

100 min. USA

Louder Than a Bomb tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in the world's largest youth poetry slam. By turns hopeful and heartbreaking, the film captures the tempestuous lives of these unforgettable kids, exploring the ways writing shapes their world, and vice versa. Louder Than a Bomb is about language as a joyful release, irrepressibly talented teenagers obsessed with making words dance, and the communities they create along the way. While the topics they tackle are often deeply personal, what they put into their poems, and what they get out of them, is universal: the defining work of finding one's voice.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS

Director/Producer: Matthew D. Kallis

Producer/Writer: Christopher Lockhart

Canyonback Films, LLC

95 min. USA

Across the USA high school sports are regularly lavished with funding, publicity and scholarships, while theater departments, hoping for some attention of their own, struggle to put on a school musical. It's no different in sports-crazy Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, except for the "Freddy Awards," a live television event that recognizes excellence in local high school musical theater. Illustrating that arts education encourages the same teamwork, camaraderie and confidence as sports, MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS follows three theater troupes on their creative journey to the elaborate award ceremony-the "Super Bowl" of high school musical theater.

Music From the Big House

Director: Bruce McDonald

Producers: Erin Faith Young, Jennifer St. John

Writers: Tony Burgess, Erin Faith Young

Caché Film & Television

86 min. Canada

Rita Chiarelli, an award-winning recording artist, takes a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the blues: Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary, a.k.a Angola Prison. She never imagined that her love for the blues would lead her to raise the roof in a collaborative jailhouse performance with inmates serving life sentences for murder, rape and armed robbery. Music has given these inmates something to live for in what was once the bloodiest prison in America. Steeped with hope, these remarkable voices guide us on a journey of men on a quest for forgiveness. One woman, four bands, and two hours of the blues: It's time to make a new soundtrack.

My Perestroika

Director: Robin Hessman

Producers: Robin Hessman, Rachel Wexler

Red Square Productions

88 min. USA/UK/Russia
My Perestroika follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times-from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Using a wealth of footage rarely seen outside of Russia-including home movies from the USSR in the 1970s-the film combines an intimate view of the past with the contemporary lives of these former schoolmates, painting a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain.

Pushing the Elephant

Directors: Beth Davenport, Elizabeth Mandel

Producers: Katy Chevigny, Angela Tucker

Executive Producers for Chicken & Egg Pictures: Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand

Arts Engine

89 min. US, Switzerland, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo

Rose Mapendo lost her family and home to the ethnic violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of Congo, yet she emerged from the suffering advocating peace and reconciliation. But after helping numerous victims to recover and rebuild their lives, there is one person Rose must still teach to forgive: her daughter Nangabire, now 17 and living in Arizona. Pushing the Elephant captures one of the most important stories of our age, in which genocidal violence is challenged by the moral fortitude and grace of one woman's mission for peace.

Quest for Honor

Director/Producer/Writer: Mary Ann Smothers Bruni

Producer: Lawrence Taub

Co-Producer: Warzer Jaff

Executive Producers: Frances Farenthold, Philip Knox Key, Sarah Elizabeth Lamar Bruni

SB Productions, LLC

64 min. USA/Iraq/Kurdistan,
The alarming rise in "honor killing," the heinous act of men killing daughters, sisters and

wives who threaten "family honor," endangers tens of thousands of women in Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and adjoining countries. The Women's Media Center of Suleymaniyah, Iraq, has joined forces with Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to end this practice. Quest for Honor follows Runak Faranj, a former teacher and tireless activist, as she works with local lawmen, journalists and members of the KRG to solve the murder of a widowed young mother, protect the victim of a safe house shooting, eradicate honor killing and redefine honor.
Steam of Life (Miesten vuoro)

Directors/Writers: Joonas Berghäll, Mika Hotakainen

Producer: Joonas Berghäll

Oktober Oy

84 min. Finland/Sweden
Naked Finnish men in saunas speak straight from the heart and in the warmth of rusty stoves, cleansing themselves both physically and mentally as this unusual film moves towards a deeply emotional and unforgettable finale. The filmmakers travel across Finland, inviting men of all walks of life in many different saunas to share their touching stories about love, death, birth and friendship-about life. Along the way, Steam of Life reveals the men's naked souls in an exceptionally intimate and poetic way.

Summer Pasture

Directors/Producers: Lynn True, Nelson Walker
True-Walker Productions

86 min. USA/Tibet/China
Filmed in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet, with unprecedented access to a place seldom visited by outsiders, Summer Pasture is a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of a young couple and their infant daughter during a time of great transition. Locho and Yama are nomadic herders who carve their existence from the land as their ancestors have for generations. But now, as traditional nomadic life confronts rapid modernization, Summer Pasture captures a family at a crossroads, ultimately revealing the profound sacrifice they will make to ensure their daughter's future.
This Way of Life

Director: Tom Burstyn

Producer/Writer: Barbara Sumner Burstyn

Cloud South Films Ltd.

88 min. New Zealand
Set against the imposing mountains and isolated beaches in a remote part of North Island, New Zealand, This Way of Life is an intimate portrait of a Maori family-Peter and Colleen Karina and their six children, ages 2 through 11-and their relationship with each other, nature and horses. This Way of Life is a blueprint for how to live with little. It is also a modern parable of one family's unconventional and incredibly positive response to the questions that confront many families in these anxious times.
Waste Land

Director/Writer: Lucy Walker
Producers: Angus Aynsley, Hank Levine
Executive Producers: Fernando Meirelles, Miel de Botton Aynsley, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Jackie de Botton
Almega Projects

98 min. UK/Brazil

Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio. There, he photographs an eclectic band of catadores-self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with them, as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage, reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Waste Land offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

SHORTS:

KEEP DANCING

Director: Greg Vander Veer

Producer: Douglas Turnbaugh

Turnbaugh/Vander Veer Productions

21 min. USA

After celebrated careers, legendary dancers Marge Champion and Donald Saddler became friends while performing together in the Broadway Show Follies in 2001. When the show closed, they decided to rent a private studio together, and they have been choreographing and rehearsing original dances ever since. At age 90, they continue to pursue their passion for life through their love and mastery of dance. KEEP DANCING seamlessly blends nine decades of archival film and photographs with present-day footage to tell a story through dance of the passing of time and the process of aging

Killing In the Name

Director/Producer: Jed Rothstein

Producers: Jed Rothstein, Liz Garbus, Rory Kennedy

Executive Producer: Carie Lemack

Moxie Firecracker Films

39 min. USA/Indonesia/Jordan
Ashraf Al-Khaled was celebrating the happiest day of his life when an Al-Qaeda

suicide bomber walked into his wedding and killed his father and 26 other family members in front of his eyes. Now, he is rising from that horrific tragedy to break the silence in the Muslim community on this taboo subject by speaking out against terrorism. Killing In the Name follows Ashraf's quest to speak with victims and perpetrators and expose the true cost of terrorism, taking us on a journey around the world to see if one man can speak truth to terror and begin to turn the tide.

The Labyrinth

Director/Producer: Jason A. Schmidt

Producer: Ron Schmidt, S.J.

Executive Producer: Arthur Schmidt

December 2nd Productions

38 min. USA/Poland
Memory, art and hell collide as an Auschwitz survivor finally confronts the horrors of his past after 50 years of silence. Marian Kolodziej was on one of the first transports to enter Auschwitz. He survived five years imprisonment and never spoke of his experience until after a serious stroke in 1993. He began rehabilitation by doing pen-and-ink drawings depicting his horrific experience. His drawings and art installations, which he called The Labyrinth, fill the large basement of a church near Auschwitz. Through the blending of his testimony and graphic drawings, this documentary explores the memories and nightmares that were buried for years.
Mozambique

Director: Alcides Soares

Producers: Neal Baer, Dick Wolf, Peter Jankowski, Arthur Forney, Christopher Zalla

Producer/Executive Producer: Holly Carter

ByKids in association with Wolf Films

14 min. USA/Mozambique
Alcides Soares is a 16-year-old AIDS orphan, one of half a million living in Mozambique today. After an American television writer (Neil Baer) and a movie director (Chris Zalla) gave Alcides a camera and taught him how to shoot, he made a moving chronicle about his journey to find a family and make a new life in a country that has been ravaged by AIDS-a story repeated millions of times every day throughout Africa. AIDS tears families apart, but the resilience of children like Alcides can make new families out of tragedy.
Sun Come Up

Director/Producer: Jennifer Redfearn

Producer: Tom Metzger

Executive Producer: Abigail E. Disney

Big Red Barn Films

39 min. USA

Sun Come Up tells the story of some of the world's first environmental refugees-the Carteret Islanders, a matrilineal society of 3,000 that inhabits some of the most remote islands in the South Pacific. The islanders share a rich tradition of music, dance and storytelling, and survive without cars, electricity or running water. Now, however, a modern crisis has intruded upon them, and their idyllic community is on the verge of extinction, due to the impact of climate change on the shoreline. Sun Come Up follows relocation leader Ursula Rakova and a group of young families as they look for a new place to call home.

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