This section showcases 16 films made by American independent filmmakers. The Grand Jury Prize went to Manda Bala. The Audience Award was scooped by Hear And Now. The Documentary Directing award went to War Dance. Manda Bala was also praised for Excellence In Cinematography, while Nanking received plaudits for Documentary Editing. No End In Sight was awarded a Special Jury Prize.
Zoo and Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib
Banished
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Marco Williams)
Story of three US towns which, in the early 20th century, forced their entire African American populations to leave, explores what, if anything, can be done to repair past racial injustice.
World Premiere
Chasing Ghosts
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Lincoln Ruchti)
Twin Galaxies Arcade, Iowa, 1982: the birthplace of mankind's obsession with video games. The fate of this world lies in the hands (literally) of a few unlikely heroes: They are the Original Video Game World Champions and the arcade is their battleground.
World Premiere
Crazy Love
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Dan Klores, Fisher Stevens; Writer: Dan Klores; Stars: Jimmy Breslin, Burt Pugach, Linda Pugach)
Documentary about a man who mutilates the woman he claims to love.
World Premiere
Everything's Cool
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Daniel BGold, Judith Helfand; Stars: Dr. Heidi Cullen, Ross Gelbspan, Bill McKibben)
Twin Galaxies Arcade, Iowa, 1982: the birthplace of mankind's obsession with video games. The fate of this world lies in the hands (literally) of a few unlikely heroes: They are the Original Video Game World Champions and the arcade is their battleground.
World Premiere
For The Bible Tells Me So
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Daniel G Karslake; Writer: Daniel G. Karslake, Helen R. Mendoza; Stars: Imogene Robinson, Victor Robinson, Gene Robinson, Isabella 'Boo' McDaniel, Brenda Poteat, David Poteat, Tonia Poteat, Randi Reitan, Phil Reitan, Jake Reitan, Britta Reitan)
Grounded by the stories of five conservative Christian families, the film explores how the religious right has used its interpretation of the Bible to support its agenda of stigmatizing the gay community and eroding the separation between church and state.
World Premiere
Crazy Love and My Kid Could Paint That
Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib
(Country: USA; Year: 2007; Director: Rory Kennedy)
Documentary investigation into the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib prison.
World Premiere
Girl 27
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: David Stenn; Writer: David Stenn)
When underage dancer Patricia Douglas is raped at a wild MGM stag party in 1937, she makes headlines and legal history, and then disappears. David Stenn as he investigates one of Hollywood's most notorious scandals.
World Premiere
Hear and Now
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky; Writer: Irene Taylor Brodsky; Stars: Sally Taylor, David Taylor, Paul Taylor)
Filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky tells a deeply personal story about her deaf parents, and their radical decision-after 65 years of silence-to undergo cochlear implant surgery, a complex procedure that could give them the ability to hear.
World Premiere
My Kid Could Paint That
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Amir Bar-Lev; Writer: Amir Bar-Lev; Stars: Amir Bar-Lev, Anthony Brunelli, Elizabeth Cohen, Michael Kimmelman, Laura Olmstead, Mark Olmstead, Marla Olmstead, Zane Olmstead, Jackie Westcott, Stuart Simpson, Janet Krone, Wayne Kirber),
Trailer
Documentary about a four-year-old who has sold $300,000 of paintings - but is she a genius or an exploited child?
World Premiere
Nanking
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman; Writer: Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman, Elizabeth Bentley, Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman; Stars: Hugo Armstrong, Rosalind Chao, Stephen Dorff, John Getz, Woody Harrelson, Mariel Hemingway, Michelle Krusiec, Leah Liang Lewis, Chris Mulkey, Jürgen Prochnow, Sonny Saito)
During the 1937-1938 Japanese occupation of Nanking, an estimated 200,000 Chinese were killed and 20,000 raped. But an unlikely partnership of Nazi businessmen and American missionaries saved 250,000 lives. Using letters, diaries and interviews with survivors and Japanese soldiers, Nanking exposes a still-controversial episode of WWII. In English, Japanese and Mandarin.
World Premiere
War Dance and Everything's Cool
No End in Sight
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Charles Ferguson; Writer: Charles Ferguson; Stars: Campbell Scott, Gerald Burke, Ali Fadhil, Omar Fekeiki, Robert Hutchings, Paul Hughes, Marc Garlasco, George Tenet, James Bamford, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld)
A powerful and haunting depiction of the atrocities suffered by the Chinese at the hands of the invading Japanese army during "The Rape of Nanking", one of the most tragic events of WWII. While more than 200,000 Chinese were murdered and ten of thousands raped, a handful of Westerners performed extraordinary acts of heroism, saving over 250,000 lives in the midst of the horror.
World Premiere
Protagonist
(Country: US; Director: Jessica Yu)
Branded by the Festival as: "The most emotionally expansive, formally ambitious documentary of the year."
World Premiere
War Dance
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix; Writer: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix)
Devastated by the long civil war in Uganda, three young girls and their school in the Patongo refugee camp find hope as they make a historic journey to compete in their country's national music and dance festival.
World Premiere
White Light/Black Rain (The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
(Country: USA, IMDb USA section; Year: 2007; Director: Steven Okazaki; Writer: Steven Okazaki; Stars: Harold Agnew, Dr. Shuntaro Hida, Kiyoko Imori, Morris Jeppson, Lawrence Johnston, Pan Yeon Kim, Etsuko Nagano, Keiji Nakazawa, Chiemi Oka, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Keiko Sasamori)
A visceral, topical and moving portrait of the human cost of atomic warfare.
World Premiere
Zoo
(Country: US; Year: 2007; Director: Robinson Devor; Writer: Robinson Devor, Charles Mudede; Stars: John Paulsen, Ken Kreps, Richard Carmen, Susan M Carr, James Chu, Coyote, Jenny Edwards, John Edwards, Paul Eenhoorn, Bob Fink, Forest Fousel, Conor Gormally, Tom Gormally, Brad Harrington, Russell Hodgkinson, Karl Holzheimer, Andrew Scott McIntyre, Michael J Minard)
Documentary triggered by a man's death by bestiality.
World Premiere
