27 June 2008
More International Films Shown at U.S. Documentary Film Fest
Silverdocs festival honors documentary filmmakers from around the world
Silver Spring, Maryland -- In its six years of existence, the Silverdocs documentary festival in suburban Washington has steadily grown into the premier U.S. showcase for nonfiction filmmakers from around the world. The 2008 festival was the biggest and most international yet.
With 108 films from 63 countries, Silverdocs added two days to its schedule (June 16-23) and welcomed the increasing participation of foreign filmmakers by splitting its best feature award into U.S. and world film categories.
"By expanding our awards to include a world feature competition, we signal our recognition and deepening appreciation of global culture,” said festival director Patricia Finneran.
The Silverdocs Sterling World Feature Award went to The English Surgeon by London-based director Geoffrey Smith. It is the story of British neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, who spends several weeks annually in Ukraine performing brain surgeries. A special jury mention went to The Red Race by Chao Gan, which documents the grueling gymnastic training of kindergarten-aged children against the backdrop of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
The winning U.S. feature was The Garden, by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, about the battle to save a community garden in a blighted neighborhood in Los Angeles. Trouble the Water by Kimberly Roberts, which chronicles the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, received an honorable mention.
Silverdocs is an annual collaboration by the American Film Institute (AFI) and the Discovery Channel. Most films are shown at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland, although the festival has added venues to meet demand. In 2008, Silverdocs attracted more than 22,000 attendees, the highest number ever. Twenty more countries submitted films this year than in 2007.
German director Jan Zabeil earned the best short film award for What Would the Drop Know About That?, which examines foreign-born custodial workers at the Reichstag (Parliament) building in Berlin. The Audience Awards went to Japanese director Megumi for Herb and Dorothy, a feature about a working-class Manhattan couple who amassed a world-class collection of contemporary art, and to Spanish director Oscar Perez for The Tailor, a short film about a Pakistani tailor in Barcelona who believes the customer is never right.
Other award winners offered peeks at a wide range of subjects, including a former Uganda child-soldier who immigrated to America and became a champion boxer (Kassim the Dream, by Kief Davidson); a Liberian women’s anti-war movement (Pray the Devil Back to Hell, by Gini Reticker); a journey to Africa to seek the origins of the banjo (Throw Down Your Heart, by Sascha Paladino); a man who hoards birds in his London flat (Ground Floor Right, by Marlene Schiött Rasmussen); and the trade in exotic animals as pets (The Elephant in the Living Room, by Michael Webber). (See “Wildlife Trafficking Is a Serious Problem, Lucrative Business.”)
AN AUDIENCE FOR INTERNATIONAL FILMS
Silverdocs affords international filmmakers the opportunity to reach U.S. audiences and, in some cases, to enjoy greater freedom of expression than their home countries allow. Some films have little or no chance of ever being screened back home. Two that fall into this category, according to their directors, are Football Under Cover by Iranian-born director Ayat Najafi and Kalinovski Square by Belarussian director Yury Khashchavatski.
Najafi, who co-directed the film with David Assman of Germany, told an audience at the film screening that he made Football Under Cover under severe restrictions from the Iranian authorities. The film documents a friendly match between an Iranian women’s football (soccer) team and a German women’s team. Because of strict Iranian laws, the Iranian team never had competed, only practiced. The match was played in 2006 in Tehran’s Ararat Stadium with about 1,000 women spectators in attendance; the stadium was closed to men. Najafi said he was told up front by the authorities that the finished film would never be shown in Iran.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Najafi said, “We’re showing in Football Under Cover that the situation of women in Iran is really terrible. … The limitations are so hard, but they also show that the women in Iran are so strong and they keep fighting against the situation.” (See “Sports Films Make Strong Showing at U.S. Film Festival.”)
Kalinovski Square revisits the 2006 presidential election in Belarus when 50,000 protestors filled October Square, the main square in Minsk, to await the election results. The crowd jeered the final tally, and for the next three days and nights occupied the square where President Alexander Lukashenko was going to hold his re-election celebration; they renamed it Kalinovski Square in honor of a 19th century Belarussian hero.
To cover the events, Khashchavatski enlisted sympathetic accredited cameramen. He could not stand near them or communicate directly with them, for fear that he and they would be arrested. (The end credits cite “those who have to stay anonymous.”) The film -- which Khashchavatski narrates with biting humor -- shows protestors being beaten and arrested by the authorities. The footage was smuggled into Estonia, where the film was assembled and finished.
Khashchavatski, who told the Silverdocs audience that opposition in Belarus is at a low ebb now after the election (which international observers labeled as unfair), but he wants the dispirited to see what the protestors did. He ends his film with these words: “This is the square, which they called after their favorite hero … in the happy minutes of opposing lies, cynicism, and violence. They rose [up] in that square and this is forever. At all times and all epochs, people dreamt about freedom and gained it. But only after fighting for it and winning.” (See “Human Rights Concerns Prompt Continued U.S. Sanctions on Belarus.”)
More information on Silverdocs is available at its Web site.
Also see The Arts-Film.
