Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2006 >> World Cinema Competition: Documentary

This year, the category expanded from 12 to 16 international documentary films. In The Pit won the Grand Jury Prize, while De Nadie was voted the audience favourite. Special Jury Awards went to Into Great Silence and Dear Pyongyang. This was the inaugural year of the Documentary Editing Award.

View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Frontier, Independent Feature Film Competition: Documentary, Independent Feature Film Competition: Dramatic, Park City At Midnight, Premieres, Spectrum, Sundance Collection, World Cinema Competition: Dramatic

Into Great Silence and Black Gold

5 Days (Five Days) (Country: Israel; Year: 2005; Director: Yoav Shamir; Writer: Yoav Shamir)

Documentary following the removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

Full Review

North American Premiere

Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet (Country: Switzerland; Year: 2005; Director: Luc Schaedler; Writer: Luc Schaedler; Stars: Thomas Sarbacher, Loten Namling, Phil Hayes)

A portrait of the rebellious Tibetan monk Gendun Choephel, this film reveals a face of old & present-day Tibet that runs against popular clichés.

North American Premiere

Black Gold (Country: UK, US; Year: 2006; Director: Marc Francis, Nick Francis; Writer: Lisa Ko, Eric Martin; Stars: Terrence Howard)

A documentary examining the inequities of the coffee trade.

Full Review

World Premiere

By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggleston (Country: France; Year: 2007; Director: Vincent Gérard, Cédric Laty; Stars: David Byrne, Ayden Clay, Maud Schuyler Clay, Andra Eggleston, William J Eggleston, Winston Eggleston, Tav Falco, Robert Gordon, Dennis Hopper, Vernon Richards, Rosalind Solomon)

A journey through the southern United States home of William Eggleston considered "the father of color photography." Eggleston’s persistent silence defies each truth revealed about his character.

North American Premiere

Dear Pyongyang (Country: Japan; Year: 2006; Director: Yang Yong-hi)

Japanese daughter explores her father’s fierce political loyalty to North Korea - costly to the point of breaking up his family.

North American Premiere

Viva Zapatero! and KZ

De Nadie (Country: Mexico; Year: 2005; Director: Tin Dirdamal; Writer: Lizzette Arguello, Iliana Martínez)

The story of Maria, a Central American immigrant forced to leave her family in search of a better life. On her way to the United States, she crosses Mexico where she encounters a nightmare.

US Premiere

The Giant Buddhas (Country: Switzerland; Year: 2005; Director: Christian Frei; Stars: Taysir Alony, Sayeed Mirza Hussain, Nelofer Pazira, Zémaryalaï Tarzi, Xuanzang)

A film about the destruction of the famous Buddha statues in Afghanistan. An essay on fanaticism and faith, terror and tolerance, ignorance and identity.

US Premiere

Glastonbury (Country: US; Year: 2006; Director: Julien Temple; Stars: Björk, David Bowie, Billy Bragg, James Brown, Nick Cave, Michael Eavis, Steven Patrick Morrissey, Joe Strummer)

A staggering range of music presented at England’s annual Glastonbury Festival, captures the spirit of important social changes over the last 30 years.

World Premiere

Into Great Silence (Die Grosse Stille) (Country: France/Switzerland/Germany; Year: 2005; Director: Philip Gröning; Writer: Philip Gröning)

A contemplation of the Chartreuse Monastery.

Full Review

US Premiere

In The Pit (En El Hoyo) (Country: Mexico; Year: 2006; Director: Juan Carlos Rulfo; Writer: Juan Carlos Rulfo; Stars: Salvador Enriquez Castillo, Sofia García López, José Guadalupe Calzada, Isabel Dolores Hernández, Alejandro Moten, Pedro Sánchez Bernal, Natividad Sánchez Montes, Isahín Octaviano Simón, Vicencio Martínez Vázquez, Agustín Zárate Centeno, )

According to Mexican legend, whenever a bridge is built the devil asks for one soul, in exchange for keeping the bridge standing. This film chronicles the daily lives of the workers building a second deck to Mexico City’s Periférico freeway - their hopes, dreams and struggle for survival.

World Premiere

5 Days and Songbirds

I For India (Country: UK; Year: 2005; Director: Sandhya Suri; Stars: Yash Pal Suri)

A tale of migration and belonging, told primarily through Super 8 films and audio letters sent between India and England over a period of 40 years.

World Premiere

KZ (Country: UK; Year: 2006; Director: Rex Bloomstein)

Exploration of the dark ironies surrounding Austria's Mauthausen concentration camp.

Full Review See: Rex Bloomstein interview on KZ documentary
, Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 7
, Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 6
, Sundance Film Festival 2006: Day 5

North American Premiere

The Short Life Of José Antonio Gutierrez (Das Kurze Leben Des José Antonio Gutierrez ) (Country: Germany; Year: 2006; Director: Heidi Specogna)

Behind the heroic tale of the first US soldier to die in the war in Iraq, there unfolds the story of a Guatemalan street child drawn into war by the promise of a green card in a foreign country.

World Premiere

Songbirds (Country: UK; Year: 2005; Director: Brian Hill; Writer: Simon Armitage; Stars: inmates of Downview Prison)

Women prisoners tell their stories in song.

Full Review

North American Premiere

Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives Of Florence Broadhurst (Country: Australia; Year: 2006; Director: Gillian Armstrong; Writer: Katherine Thomson; Stars: Judi Farr, Felicity Price, Hannah Garbo, Robert Lloyd-Lewis, Phyllis Nicholson, Ted Bettiens, Les Jensen, Mary Shield, June Gollan, Robyn Miller, Leith Myerson)

Flamboyant design pioneer Florence Broadhurst lived a colorful life, but it is only now that her time has truly come, with her bold, exotic wallpaper prints in huge demand internationally.

World Premiere

Viva Zapatero! (Country: Italy; Year: 2005; Director: Sabina Guzzanti; Writer: Sabina Guzzanti)

An Italian satirist takes on President Berlusconi's control of the media in amusing and shocking documentary. Out to own on DVD now.

Full Review

North American Premiere