Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Doc/Fest >> 2012 >> Global Encounters
The wold is your oyster with this selection of impressive documentaries from around the globe.
View other Sheffield DocFest Films by strand: Behind The Beats, Best Of British, BFI, China Now, Cross Platform, Euro Doc, First Cut, Howard Street Screen, Queer Screen, Resistance, Retrospective: Dziga Vertov, Shorts, The Habit Of Art, This Sporting Life
Planet Of Snail and Scarlet Road
1/2 Revolution
(Country: Denmark, Egypt; Year: 2011; Director: Omar Shagawi, Karim el Hakim; Stars: Omar Shagawi, Karim el Hakim)
Two documentary makers offer their footage of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, from the thrill of participating in mass protests to the dismay and fear at realising their movement has been infiltrated.
5 Broken Cameras (Five Broken Cameras)
(Country: Palestine, Israel, France; Year: 2011; Director: Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi)
A Palestinian journalist chronicles his village’s resistance to a separation barrier being erected on their land and in the process captures his young son’s lens on the world.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
(Country: US, China; Year: 2011; Director: Alison Klayman; Stars: Changwei Gu, Ai Weiwei, Evan Osnos, Ying Gao, Tehching Hsieh, Huang Hung, Zuzhou Zuoxiao, Yanping Liu, Danqing Chen, Inserk Yang), Official Site
Renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has garnered international attention as much for his ambitious artwork as his political provocations and increasingly public clashes with the Chinese government.
All Hail The Beat
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Nelson George)
Marvin Gaye used it to craft Sexual Healing. Its affordability turned a generation of kids around the world into pioneering musicians, and the genres of house, techno and electro wouldn’t exist without it. Yet most of the producers who use its sound have never seen the Roland TR-808 drum machine...
The Arab World In Revolution(s)
(Country: France; Year: 2011; Director: Julien Félix, Gildas Corgnet, Marc Ghostine, Charlotte Bienaimé, Alexandre Grellier, Yann Le Gléau, Sébastien Mesquida)
The ongoing, unpredictable change in the Arab world represents fertile ground for cross-platform programming. Arte’s online project highlights the revolution’s many different perspectives. In addition to Generation Revolution, which profiles the young movers and shakers of the movement, Journal 2.0 provides blogs, cartoons and other related content.
The House I Live In and The Sheik and I
Bar Code (Code Barre)
(Country: Canada, France; Year: 2011; Director: Philippe Archontakis, Pascal Brouard)
Objects are all around us, with emotive stories to tell. In this NFB and Arte France cross-platform project, 30 filmmakers have made 100 films about everyday objects. Access them through the web site or IPhone app, by scanning the object closest to you, and add your own story to the mix…
The Bastard Sings The Sweetest Song
(Country: Denmark, Canada, Sweden; Year: 2012; Director: Christy Garland)
A Guyanan man who ekes out a living rising fighting cocks and songbirds takes drastic measures to try and save his elderly mother from alcoholism.
Bear 71
(Country: Canada; Year: 2011; Director: Leanne Allison, Jeremy Mendes)
Travel to Canada’s Banff National Park, and into the life of Bear 71. Her every move is tracked via a radio collar, and watched by park rangers.
Blames & Flames (Falgoosh)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Mohammadreza Farzad)
The history of the Iranian revolution as the history of cinema.
Bones Brigade: An Autobiography
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Stacy Peralta; Stars: Stacy Peralta, Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Lance Mountain, Mike McGill), Official Site
When six teenage boys came together as a skateboarding team in the 1980s, they reinvented not only their chosen sport but themselves too – as they evolved from insecure outsiders to the most influential athletes in the field.
Undefeated and How To Survive A Plague
Buena Vista Social Club
(Country: Cuba; Year: 1999; Director: Wim Wenders; Stars: Luis Barzaga, Joachim Cooder, Ry Cooder, Julio Alberto Fernndez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Carlos Gonzlez, Rubn Gonzlez, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo, Compay Segundo)
Documentary about the Cuban stars who went on to become an international phenomenon.
Burmese Butterfly
(Country: Myanmar, Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Hnin Ei Hlaing; Stars: Phyo Lay)
A young transgender women talks about the flowering of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in her country.
Call Me Kuchu
(Country: USA; Year: 2012; Director: Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright; Stars: David Kato Kisule, Naome Ruzindana, Stosh Mugisha), Official Site
The story of the Ugandan campaigners who have spoken out against the country's proposed Anti-Gay Bill.
Cave Of Forgotten Dreams (Caves of Forgotten Dreams)
(Year: 2010; Director: Werner Herzog; Writer: Werner Herzog; Stars: Charles Fathy, Werner Herzog)
An exploration of the Chauvet caves in Southern France where the oldest known human paintings can be found.
Chasing Ice
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Jeff Orlowski; Writer: Mark Monroe; Stars: James Balog, Svavar Jonatansson, Adam LeWinter, Jeff Orlowski), Official Site, Trailer
Time-lapse photography of glaciers over several years providing tangible visual evidence of climate change.
Chasing Ice and Call Me Kuchu
China Heavyweight
(Year: 2012; Director: Yung Chang; Writer: Yung Chang; Stars: Zongli He, Yunfei Miao, Moxiang Qi, Zhong Zhao)
In central China, where a coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions, the top students face dramatic choices as they graduate – should they fight for the collective good or for themselves?
Circus School (Ma Xi Xue Xiao)
(Country: China, United States; Year: 2006; Director: Dingding Ke, Jing Guo)
Chinese acrobats undertake exhausting and dangerous training as they bid to be the best.
Enthusiasm: Symphony Of The Donbass (Entuziazm: Simfoniya Donbassa)
(Country: Russia; Year: 1930; Director: Dziga Vertov)
A symphonic tribute to the industrial workers of Donbass, looking at the dangers posed by religion and alcohol.
A Fierce Green Fire
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Mark Kitchell; Writer: Tom Turner), Official Site
A definitive history of one of the most important movements of the 20th century, A Fierce Green Fire chronicles the environmental movement’s fascinating evolution from the 1960s to the present.
Fire In The Blood
(Country: India; Year: 2012; Director: Dylan Mohan Gray), Official Site
A look at the struggle to make anti-retroviral ADS drugs available to infected people worldwide, no matter their financial resources. Read what Dylan Mohan Gray told us about making the film.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and 5 Broken Cameras
The Globe Collector
(Country: Australia; Year: 2012; Director: Summer DeRoche; Stars: Andrew Pullen)
Meet Andrew and his amazing collection of lamps.
Going Up The Stairs
(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami)
A dutiful Iranian wife overcomes her insecurities and her husband's objections and becomes an internationally celebrated artist.
The House I Live In
(Country: Netherlands, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, US; Year: 2012; Director: Eugene Jarecki; Writer: Eugene Jarecki, Christopher St John; Stars: Eugene Jarecki, Nannie Jeter, Betty Chism, Dennis Whidbee, Elzie Hooks, Robert Wilson, David Simon, Michael Correa, Gabor Mate, Charles Bowden, Mark W Bennet, Maurice Haltiwanger, Jim K McGough, Eric Franklin, Don Walker), Official Site
Does the War on Drugs do more harm than good?
How To Survive A Plague
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: David France), Official Site, Trailer
The story of Act Up and the ordinary people who transformed the tratment of AIDS.
High Tech, Low Life
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Steve Maing; Stars: Zhou Shuguang, Tiger Temple)
Citizen journalists in China risk the wrath of the authorities to put the news they feel is important on the internet.
The Island President and The Globe Collector
Hometown Boy (Gin Chen Xiao Ze)
(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2011; Director: Hung-I Yao; Stars: Liu Xiaodong, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lao Hongyi)
The celebrated artist Liu Xiaodong returns to his hometown to paint once again the people whose portraits first gained him acclaim.
The Honor Code (The Honour Code)
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Katy Chevigny)
An animated exploration of the tradition of honour killing, asking how it might be brought to an end.
The Island President
(Year: 2011; Director: Jon Shenk; Stars: Mohamed Nasheed), Official Site
The story of President Mohamed Nasheed, of the Maldives, and his attempts to save the country by brokering global agreement on climate change.
Indie Game: The Movie
(Year: 2011; Director: Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky; Stars: Jonathan Blow, Edmund McMillen, Tommy Refenes, Phil Fish), Official Site
Follow the dramatic journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world.
Jai Bhim Comrade (Jai Bhim Comrade)
(Country: India; Year: 2011; Director: Anand Patwardhan)
A look at India's caste system and the Dalits struggling for dignity against over 2,000 years' worth of prejudice.
Saving Face and The Honor Code
Jesse Owens
(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Laurens Gant)
The story of the black Olympic athlete whose prowess humiliated the Nazis but who returned home to a life of opression and exclusion in racially segregated America.
Japan: Children Of The Tsunami
(Country: UK, China, Denmark, Canada, Netherlands; Year: 2012; Director: Dan Reed)
Compelling testimony from seven to 10-year-old survivors, reveals how last year’s Japanese tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident have changed children's lives forever.
Koyaanisqatsi
(Country: United States; Year: 1982; Director: Godfrey Reggio)
A movie with no conventional plot: merely a collection of expertly photographed scenes. Subject matter has a highly environmental theme.
The Last Waltz
(Year: 1978; Director: Martin Scorsese; Writer: Mardik Martin; Stars: The Band, Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, Paul Butterfield, Dr. John), Official Site
A film account and presentation of the final concert of The Band.
The Law In These Parts
(Country: Israel; Year: 2011; Director: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz)
Israel's 43-year military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories unfolds through provocative interviews with the system’s architects and historical footage showing the enactment of these laws upon the Palestinian population.
Fire In The Blood and Cave Of Forgotten Dreams
The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus
(Country: United States, Switzerland; Year: 2012; Director: Alexandre Philippe; Stars: Paul)
A documentary about Paul, the octopus whose uncanny World Cup football predictions made him an international superstar.
The Love Competition
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Brent Hoff)
At Stanford University’s first annual love competition, no touching is allowed. It’s all in the mind for the contestants, as they spend five minutes in an MRI machine thinking about their nearest and dearest...and trying to trigger the most neurochemical activity.
Love Free or Die
(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Macky Alston; Stars: Gene Robinson)
The story of Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop whose inauguration placed him at the centre of conflicts over homosexuality within the Anglican church.
Lullaby (Kolybelnaja)
(Country: Russia; Year: 1937; Director: Dziga Vertov; Stars: Joseph Stalin)
A propaganda film about the glorious things Stalin did for mothers and children.
Man With A Movie Camera
(Country: Russia; Year: 1929; Director: Dziga Vertov)
A montage exploring great Soviet cities in the early years of Communism. Read our review of the Michael Nyman accompanied version.
Buena Vista Social Club and Searching For Sugar Man
Maori Boy Genius
(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2011; Director: Pietra Brettkelly; Stars: Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti)
Ngaa Rauuira is the young genius who has inspired his people and hopes to change their polical fortunes.
Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present)
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Matthew Akers; Stars: Marina Abramovic, Ulay), Official Site, Trailer
Marina Abramović prepares for a major retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York hoping to finally silence four decades of skeptics who proclaim: 'But why is this art?'
Maya Deren's Sink
(Year: 2011; Director: Barbara Hammer)
This evocative experimental film pays tribute to Maya Deren, the mother of avant-guard American film. In a kaleidoscope approach, director Barbara Hammer layers many images with recreations of scenes from Deren’s films, projected into the homes where they were originally filmed.
My Neighbourhood
(Country: Israel, Palestine, United States; Year: 2012; Director: Julia Bacha, Rebekah Wingert-Jabi)
“My father built that house and an Israeli judge came and closed it.” Angry young Mohommed lost his innocence when his family’s home was violently taken over by Israeli settlers. But support for their plight comes from an unlikely corner: Israelis, horrified at what is being done in their name.
Naqoyqatsi
(Country: United States; Year: 2002; Director: Godfrey Reggio)
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
The Other Dream Team and Off Label
Off Label
(Country: US; Year: 2012; Director: Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher)
Exploration of pharamceutical companies' ethics and reach.
One Breath - The Story of William Trubridge
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Nicolas Rossier)
It looks simple: you hold your breath and go as deep into the water as you can. But as William Trubridge has learned, triumphing in the dangerous world of free diving is all about mind over matter.
The Other Dream Team
(Country: Lithuania, US; Year: 2012; Director: Marius A. Markevicius; Writer: Marius A Markevicius, Jon Weinbach; Stars: Jim Lampley, Bill Walton, Greg Speirs, Mickey Hart, Arvydas Sabonis, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Dan Majerle, David Stern, Charles Smith, Jonas Valanciunas, Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, David Remnick, Vytautas Landsbergis, P.J. Carlesimo), Official Site
The 1992 Lithuanian National Basketball Team went from the clutches of Communism to the Summer Olympics in Barcelona – a testament to the powerful role of sports as a catalyst for cultural identity.
Paradise
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Nadav Kurtz)
Every day they take their lives in their hands in the Windy City – by cleaning the windows of Chicago’s skyscrapers. As they go about their jobs, invisible to the middle class workers on the inside, three Mexican window cleaners reveal their thoughts about life and death.
Photographic Memory
(Country: United States, France; Year: 2011; Director: Ross McElwee; Stars: Ross McElwee)
Struck by the difference between his son as a young child, on video, and his sun as a teenager today, the famous photographer goes in search of his own younger self.
Japan: Children Of The Tsunami and Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present
Planet Of Snail
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2011; Director: Seung-Jun Yi; Stars: Young-Chan, Soon-Ho), Official Site
Documentary about a deaf-blind man and his wife.
Saloon
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Tom Pietrasik)
This beautiful short doc pays tribute to the mecca of male pampering that is the Indian barbershop. Beyond the windows of the saloon, male barbers work their magic on their customers, in very public displays of grooming and preening.
Saving Face
(Country: United States, Pakistan; Year: 2011; Director: Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy; Stars: Mohammad Jawad), Official Site
A doctor battles to help two women who have suffered the distressingly common fate of having acid thrown in their faces for disobeying relatives.
Scarlet Road
(Country: Australia; Year: 2011; Director: Catherine Scott; Stars: Rachel Wotton), Official Site
A confident, assertive sex worker discusses her work and what it means to her clients, especially those with disabilities.
Sector Zero
(Country: Lebanon, United Arab Emirates; Year: 2011; Director: Nadim Mishlawi)
A journey into the troubled history of the Karantina district in Lebanon, looking at cultural responses to the horrors it has known.
Bear 71 and The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus
The Sheik and I
(Country: United Arab Emirates; Year: 2012; Director: Caveh Zahedi)
The request for a filmmaker commissioned to make a documentary on subversive art to avoid making fun of the Sheik is asking for trouble.
Solar Roadways
(Country: United States; Year: 2012; Director: Michele Ohayon)
Half think they’re geniuses, half think they’re crazy. You can decide for yourself as you learn about Idaho couple Scott and Julie’s big idea: Why not use the highways in America to make solar powered roadways that will move us away from coal dependence?
Searching For Sugar Man (Searching For Sugarman)
(Country: Sweden, UK, Finland; Year: 2012; Director: Malik Bendjelloul; Writer: Malik Bendjelloul, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman, Craig Bartholomew Strydom; Stars: Sixto Rodriguez)
The true story of a brilliant yet forgotten musician and the revolutionaries he inspired on another continent.
Three Songs Of Lenin (Tri pesni o Lenine)
(Country: Russia; Year: 1934; Director: Dziga Vertov)
Documenting the legacy of Lenin.
The Tsunami And The Cherry Blossom
(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Lucy Walker)
An introduction to the Japanese communities devastated by the March 2011 tsunami, looking to the cherry blossom as a symbol of hope.
China Heavyweight and The Tsunami And The Cherry Blossom
Undefeated
(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Dan Lindsay, TJ Martin; Stars: Bill Courtney)
Meet the coach who is determined to help Mannassas High School football team overcome their 110 year losing streak.
We Are Legion: The Story Of The Hacktivists
(Country: United States; Year: 2011; Director: Brian Knappenberger)
The story of hacker group Anonymous, their battles against Scientology and their contribution to the Arab Spring.
We Were Here
(Country: Australia; Year: 2011; Director: Amy Gebhardt)
Invited to upload their experiences of summer 2011, Australians responded in droves. Through their footage, director Amy Gebhardt tells the story of a nation enjoying its downtime – and suffering at the hands of Mother Nature. An exuberant, colourful, communal portrait of Australia.
Where Is My Mind
(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Martin Ginestie)
A letter through his postbox informs 42-year-old Lee Gilliland that he has been classed as “lacking mental capacity” and will lose most of his rights, including the right to decide where he lives. Lee is determined not to go without a fight, and barricades himself inside his home.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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