Comrade Dad has World Première at Leipzig

Karin Lee's experimental documentary, Comrade Dad has its world première at the 48th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animation Film on October 7 and 8.

In Comrade Dad, writer/director Karin Lee reflects on her father Wally Lee and the communist bookstore he ran on Vancouver's Skid Row from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s. She also tells a little-known story about how a segment of Vancouver's Chinese community embraced Chinese socialism at the time of the Cultural Revolution.

Visit our online catalogue for a detailed description of Comrade Dad.

The Leipzig Festival is not only the biggest German festival for documentary film but also one of the most important ones on international level. Visit the festival web site for more information on the screening.

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Drawing Out the Demons at Cork Film Festival

David Vaisbord's film, Drawing Out the Demons: A Film About the Artist Attila Richard Lukacs, will be one of a handful of Canadian documentaries screening at the Cork Film Festival in Ireland from October 9-16, 2005.

The film unflinchingly follows Lukacs, notorious and gifted bad-boy of the international art world, through his difficult descent into addiction and back again. The Globe and Mail has offered this praise for the gritty film: "…rather than romanticizing the artist's dysfunction, the filmmaker David Vaisbord allows us to observe the squalor of addiction and the paranoia and rage that come with it, glorifying instead the artistic discipline and self knowledge that finally delivered the artist from death's door and back to the studio." Drawing Out the Demons was produced by Trish Dolman and Stephanie Symns and directed by David Vaisbord.

Visit our online catalogue for a detailed description of Drawing Out the Demons.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Cork Film Festival is one of the oldest film festivals in the world. Visit the festival web site for more information on the screening.

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Bangkok Girl

Jordan Clark
High Banks Entertainment
42:30 minutes • 2005
Also available on DVD

"****Four stars…a remarkably accomplished and beautifully photographed debut documentary that puts a human face on a devastating social issue that, sadly, is the fate of too many impoverished girls…"
  – Michael Reid, Times Colonist (Victoria)

Jordan Clark's tragic documentary provides a glimpse into Thailand's notorious and booming sex tourism industry through the experiences of a 19-year-old bar girl named Pla. Working in the bars from the age of thirteen, Pla has managed to avoid selling her body—a remarkable revelation given her surroundings—but her refusal to take part in this all-too-common profession for young Thai women cannot last. The introduction of falangs, or foreigners, to Thailand has forever changed the city, the economy, the Thai people's lives and desires. A daring and unabashed look at a popular Western predilection through the eyes of one girl, this film challenges the accepted worldwide practice of sex tourism.

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Craving

Christianne Hirt/Delphine Brooker
11 minutes • 2005

"This harrowing tale of frenzied self-control gone all out of control is well-written, well-performed and deals with teenage girls, mental illness and self image."
  – Darren Parke, Vue Weekly (Edmonton)

This powerful performance by Delphine Brooker recounts one woman's insane search for physical perfection. An expectant mother chronicles her struggle with anorexia nervosa to her unborn child. Starting with her 20-something travels to the stylish city of Paris, where staying slender is an art form amidst the many temptations, she uncovers the psychological and emotional triggers that lead to her brush with this life-destroying disease. At its heart, Craving is a story about the fact that life nourishes life.

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Little Black Caddy

Greg Liburd/Peter Alexander/Jennifer Jang/Cheryl-Lee Fast
Fast Productions
11 minutes • 2005
Includes discussion guide

Also available on DVD

Richard is a white guy who has it all figured out. He's a great golfer and a better boss. But when he takes his Asian employee, Francis, out for a round of golf, Richard's self-righteousness quickly becomes the nastiest hazard they encounter. The two cross paths and points of view with an obnoxious rich white kid who mistreats his black caddy to an outrageous degree. But what might just be most outrageous is how much trouble Richard lands in because of his white middle-class assumptions about race and power.

A short Making of Little Black Caddy follows the film. Filmmaker Greg Liburd explains that the racism he encounters today is much subtler, but still very much exists—a fact that motivated him and co-director Peter Alexander to make this controversial short film. Behind-the-scenes discussions with the actors and other key personnel are featured.

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Mixed Signals

Richard Martin
8 minutes • 2005
Also available on DVD

"This is it... Somebody say the time is NOW..."

A scrambled satellite signal sets the tone for the mixed messages of fundamentalism and politics. Original images, recorded as they appeared on a digitally scrambled broadcast, blur televised images into a kaleidoscope of sound and colour, starkly portraying the co-option of religious dogma for profit and political gain.

MIXED SIGNALS had its world première at the 55th Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin and appeared in the official selection for the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen.

"MIXED SIGNALS overflows with ingenious pixel piquancy."
  – Margaret von Schiller, Berlin Film Festival

"MIXED SIGNALS uses the most radical kind of visual disintegration and abstraction to capture the terrifying quality of the most radical kind of religious and political extremism."
  – Jon Davies, Toronto Film Festival Daily

"The resulting picture, even in its confusion, becomes a clearer medium for viewing the truth behind the fundamentalist images we are bombarded with each and every day."
  – Jill Hannon, Brooklyn Underground

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Plastic Warriors

Amy Tall Chief
26 minutes • 2004

Plastic Warriors is an eye-opening and much-needed examination of common harmful First Nations stereotypes. The Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, Land-o-Lakes butter, Squaw Creek, Squaw Island—these are not benign images and terms for everyone. In this frank documentary, five Aboriginal people from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds express their frustration over the widespread use of Native caricatures. Do these images make it difficult for real living First Nations people to be visible in contemporary society? Who should be held accountable for the perpetuation of these stereotypes? What can Native people do to deter these images and protect their children from being further harmed? Plastic Warriors raises an alarm and, with any luck, the next time its viewers encounter a Hollywood or Halloween Indian, it'll also raise a few eyebrows.

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POW WOW

Howie Summers
Blackbird Productions
24 minutes • 2005
Also available on DVD

This intimate look at the Big River Cree powwow in northern Saskatchewan features behind-the-scenes visits with performers and Elders, as well as mesmerizing footage of many different types of dances, drumming and singing. Alvin Manitopyes explains the powwow's evolution from the age of the buffalo hunt and warrior societies to the more social event it is today. Thomas Christian discusses the discipline dancers must bring to the art form and the storytelling that goes along with it. Sheldon "Laughing Horse" Sutherland points out the subtle and countless ways performers express their personal style. Linda Standing, Cecile Nepoose and Charles Rabbitskin explain the spiritual significance of the exquisite handcrafted regalia. Intercut with the powwow's hypnotic whir of movement, colour and sound, these individuals and others share their personal reasons for taking part in this ancient tradition and its enormous impact on their identity.

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Seeds of Hope

Katerine Giguère/Sylvie Van Brabant
Films du Rapide-Blanc
56 minutes • 2005
English, French and Indonesian with English sub-titles

Also available on DVD

At times, the whole charitable concept of foreign aid can create dependencies and corruption that do more to hinder than to help our far-flung cousins. In Seeds of Hope, set on an Indonesian isle, our two well-meaning protagonists wonder what they have gotten themselves into. They quickly realize that if they do not distance themselves from the local aid organizations, their projects—planting medicinal herb gardens and creating jobs through eco-tourism—will come to nothing. After months of language studies and fruitless meetings, they find the village of Lekolodo. There, they embark on a journey with the inhabitants that will profoundly change them all and ultimately become a model of autonomy cited by the Indonesian government. Seeds of Hope is a touching example of tenacity in the face of everyday evil.

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Squat!

Ève Lamont/Nicole Hubert
Films du Rapide-Blanc
Two versions: 43 minutes & 82 minutes • 2002
French with English sub-titles

Also available on DVD

Montreal, summer 2001: During the city's acute housing crisis, young militants and people with poor lodgings or none at all barricaded and occupied a vacant building. Claiming the right to housing and the desire to live alternatively, they formed a politicized squat. Under the voraciously watchful eye of the media, these 50 squatters tried to develop a well-organized residence. A social order developed, with meetings and work schedules that included painting and repairs. Initially endorsed by Montreal City Hall, the squat garnered sensational media coverage that led to public outcry and forceful police reaction. Squat! provides an inside look at the controversy surrounding the squat, the reality of the homeless, and their efforts to improve their living circumstances.

"****Four stars. In the tradition of cinéma vérité, Lamont leaves no stone unturned, from the squatters' infighting to the media circus lying in wait to distort their every misstep. As building inspectors, fire marshals and riot police rally against them, the squatters continue to fight for decent shelter and survival… Squat! presents an honest view of the economically disadvantaged and celebrates the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity."
  – Chart Attack

Award(s): Best Direction Award, Hot Docs 2003

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Twins of Mankala

Jason DaSilva/Suzanne Cort/Sasha Dees
In Face Films
11 minutes • 2005

In Twins of Mankala, Jason DaSilva continues his series on children living in parallel worlds by moving through the lives of Kenyan children in Africa and North America. Eunice was born and raised in the village of Kilo in Kenya, while Kara and Kendall are twin eight-year-olds living in Massachusetts. As the twins narrate in English and Eunice in Kikuyu, they reveal their daily lives as they unfold—from waking up, school time and play, to their mannerisms, beliefs and customs.

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We Don't Live in Igloos: Inuvik Youth Speak Out

Janet Ip
19 minutes • 2005

While the media too often focuses on Inuit youth struggling with solvent abuse and suicide, We Don't Live in Igloos goes beyond the stereotypes to ask teens in the Canadian North about their real experience.

Created by filmmaker-physician Janet Ip during her rural medical training in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, the documentary sprang from a photography project—she gave cameras to a group of Inuvik teens so they could capture images of what mattered to them.

Stereotypes are shattered by four exceptional youth: an aspiring rock star, a beauty pageant contestant, an anti-smoking activist and a cadets sergeant major. Their photos, combined with frank interviews, provide insight into the issues that really concern Inuvik youth.

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When the Storm Came

Shilpi Gupta
Veritas Films
24 minutes • 2003
Also available on DVD

The women of Kunnan Pushpora trek through the jungle to collect firewood for fuel in the militarized valley nestled in the Himalayan foothills known as Kashmir. But they are haunted by a night now deeply entrenched in their collective memory. When the Storm Came tells their story and gives a human face to a commonly used weapon of war—rape.

Through evocative interviews with women and men in the village, the film recreates the night of February 23, 1991, when villagers say they were the victims of a mass rape at the hands of Indian security forces. It also depicts the impact the rape continues to have on the community over a decade later. A brief look at the history of India and Pakistan with respect to Kashmir provides context to the charged situation in the Himalayan paradise. The film culminates with a stark reminder of the universality of rape as a weapon in conflict.

Award(s):

• Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking, Sundance Film Festival
• Best Short Doc, Cleveland International Film Festival
• Best Short Doc, Cinema Epicuria Sonoma Film Festival
• Silver Medal, Documentary category, Student Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Bricker Award and 2nd Place–Documentary, Student Emmy Awards, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
• Audience Choice Award for Favorite Documentary Short, Orinda Film Festival
• Featured in the Contemporary Documentaries Series, a survey of outstanding work in the documentary field drawn from the 2004 Academy Award winners, nominations, and other important and innovative films considered by the Academy that year.

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Women Like Us

Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri
60 minutes • 2002
Also available on DVD

In the west there are many misconceptions about women from the Middle East and Muslim women. Iranian-born Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri left Iran for the United States just before the 1979 Revolution. She was 17. She later returned to meet with childhood friends and examine what life is like for women in Iran at the beginning of the 21st century.

Five women share their experiences: Sudabeh, a journalist who tries to survive in a difficult political climate; Kobra, a traditional farmer who lost her husband in the Iran-Iraq war; Maryam, a nurse who has left her family in the country to live an independent life in Tehran; Mahsa, a college graduate from a westernized background; and Raheleh, a college graduate from an Islamic family. Against a backdrop of Islam, they share their views on the veil, the relationship of Iranian women to the West, and the long-ranging impacts of the 1979 Revolution on women in their country.

Women Like Us offers insight into the changing role of women in Iran from a unique and informed perspective.

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For more information, contact Moving Images Distribution

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