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37°C A man’s car breaks down on a country road. When he gets out to find help he is chased back into his car by a cow. A series of happenstances follow involving a gangster, cops, hitchhikers and a bagful of money. Hilariously filmed, the concept for 37°C, as the director explains, is: ‘The one who is born to crawl can never fly.’  458NM Two mechanical snails meet in the moonlight, but their romantic rendezvous is interrupted by a menacing shadow. ADAM’S APPLE (ADAMS ÆBLER) Ivan is an insanely optimistic preacher who takes in convicts to help around the remote, rural church he ministers to. His current charges are a psychotic Saudi immigrant addicted to robbing gas stations and an alcoholic tennis pro convicted of sexual assault. His newest "helper" is Adam, a vicious neo-Nazi. Asked to set a goal for his stay, Adam sarcastically answers that he'd like to bake a cake. Ivan cheerfully puts him in charge of the parish's pride and joy: the only apple tree in the vicinity. Grasping the extent of Ivan's crazed, preternatural determination to look on the bright side of everything, Adam immediately decides to shake him out of his rose-colored stupor.
AFGHAN MUSCLES The young men of Afghanistan have discovered the art of bodybuilding. In a country ravaged by war, these men still hold on to their dreams; dreams of muscle, honour and fame—absolute control of the body in a world of chaos. From the rubbles of Kabul to the skyline of Dubai we follow Hamid on a great journey that will take him across mountains and through a struggle to honour both his own dreams and his father’s aspirations.
AFTER SREBRENICA (DOPO SREBRENICA) 10 years ago, the Bosnian Serb army occupied the Srebrenica enclave in the mountains of east Bosnia Herzegovina. The town had been declared “safe area” by the UN Security Council. In the days following the fall of the enclave, over 8000 Bosnian Muslim prisoners were killed and buried in mass graves, unchecked by the international peace-keeping forces. Today, Srebrenica represents the most serious case for missing persons in the decade of wars in ex Yugoslavia. This documentary follows an imaginary journey from Tuzla, where the families of the missing are conducting their battle for truth and justice, to Potocari (the Memorial where identified persons are buried) to Srebrenica.
ALPINE SAGA (DAS ERBE DER BERGLER) Award-winning director Erich Langjahr returns to his beloved Alps to document a group of people continuing the legacy of their forefathers. Every year on Swiss National Day, August 1, the Wildheuer climb up the steep mountain of the “Hinteren Heubrig”, fitted out with scythes and wearing wooden shoes with spikes, just as their ancestors did before them. They are part of a generation who have lived with the challenges of nature and survived it. This film is a unique opportunity to experience the last remaining mountain haymakers in the Muotatal, a valley in canton Schwyz, Switzerland.
ANGNIMA SHERPA: THE ICEFALL DOCTOR Experienced in the mountain terrains, Angnima Sherpa has been working in the Khumbu Icefall since 1975. Khumbu Icefall is the terrifying gateway to Mt. Everest from the South side. Safety is the number one priority in this dangerous part of the mountain. Angnima and his team are the first one to reach the base camp and last one to leave the place. The film, additionally, explores his dedication to his family and religion.
ARE THERE STILL ANY SHEPHERDS? (AINDA HÁ PASTORES?) An Isolated and forgotten valley in the Portuguese mountains hides the last shepherds of Serra da Estrela Mountain Range. There is no electricity, no water public utilities, and no asphalted roads around here. Nowadays, the eldests are dying and the youngests show no interest in the demanding job of being a shepherd. Herminio, 27 years old, is the youngest shepherd living in this valley. For how long will he maintain this occupation? After all, do the shepherds still exist?
BECOMING A WOMAN IN ZANSKAR This film recounts the true story of a friendship shattered by destinay. In the Himalayan kingdom of Zanskar, best friends Tenzin and Palkit are forced to part and leave their families forever. Tenzin learns that she is to be married to a man she has never met; while Palkit defies her father’s similar plans and becomes a nun, embarking on a perious journey by foot on a frozen river to reach the monastery. Thus begins their passage to womanhood.
THE BENCH (BÆNKEN) Kaj is a stubborn man with a great deal of pride. The former chef lives in a council flat. He has wasted his life and is now on a council job training scheme for the long-term unemployed. The downfall suddenly changes as he regains contact with his long lost daughter and her six-year-old son. For the first time in years Kaj need not survive on his own devices. Now he has responsibilities and a family of his own! The film gives an unromantic but a profound insight into the lives lead at the bottom of the social strata and shows that reconciliation and changes can come about in the direst circumstances.
THE BIG TOP SHUFFLE Ganesh, a retired circus performer and trainer, has taken to the dangerous job of rescuing young girls from unscrupulous circus owners. Parents of children trafficked to The New Raj Kamal Circus have come to Ganesh's office for help. In an attempt to rescue the children, he and his colleagues decide to take some parents to Uttar Pradesh. In one of the most lawless areas of India and amidst pervasive police corruption, a wild goose chase begins. The film follows Ganesh as he tries to negotiate the rescue of 20 girls from the circus and it exposes the horrors faced by the children.
BLOWING UP PARADISE This film tells for the very first time the history of France’s atomic tests in the Pacific. Shooting on location in France, Tahiti, Australia and NZ, the film is based on unique access to former French politicians and officials from the French nuclear weapons agency, as well as to French and Polynesian former test workers. This BBC production explores the motives behind France’s bomb, the enthusiasm of De Gaulle and his successors for ‘La Bombinette’, the daring campaigns run by environmentalists to stop the tests, and the effects of nuclear fallout on Polynesian islanders and test site workers.
BUHRAN Dang, a territory in farwestern Nepal originally inhabited by Tharus, has been a lucrative destination for norther pahadis for many decades. Pahadis migrating to Dang have managed, on the back of pervasive ignorance and political inexperience, to appropriate land from the Tharus, saddle them with loans, and even reduce them to the status of Kamaiya, bondage labourers. Fed up with the situation, the Tharu cmmunity found some hope in Buhran, both a name and a process. As a name, Buhran denotes Naya Muluk, the annexed districts of Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur. As a process, it means the migration of Tharus from Dang to Naya Muluk.
CLIMBER
COAST TO COAST When they take off in their trikes, Mike Blyth and Olivier Aubert have greater ideals than to defy the gods and gravity. They want to plan a small part in the great symphony of the sky and taste the splendour of the world through the span of their wings. In their journey from one coast of Africa to another, they sometimes take few of the people they meet along the way as guests in their trikes. Coast to Coast is the story of two pilots searching for beauty in the skies and seeking to spread joy on the ground.
CONFLICT TIGER In the forests of the Russian Far East, an inexperienced and foolhardy poacher triggers an infamous series of tiger attacks on humans. The authorities call upon the services of Yuri Trush, a specialist in tracking and eliminating tigers that have lost their fear of man. Conflict Tiger takes Yuri’s most notorious pursuit of a ‘man-eating’ tiger as the basis for a documentary thriller. The film combines dramatic reconstruction with extraordinary archival footage shot by Yuri himself as events unfolded. In the aftermath of this epic confrontation, the film emerges as a parable which challenges the cosy illusions of the traditional ‘big cat’ natural history by setting the animal’s precarious situation against the pressing needs of human survival.
CONVERSING WITH AOTEAROA In an age of technological integration and urban life, people turn to the natural world for a wilderness experience. What draws us to the remote corners of land and sea when we realize something in our lives is missing? In this animated documentary, New Zealanders attempt to fathom their deep, personal connection with their land. Among the interviewees are hunters, fishermen, farmers, trampers, mountaineers, adventurer-racers, conservationists, ecologists, artists, urban and rural dwellers, Pakeha, Maori and tourists, young, old and in between. The thread that ties them all together is a passion and love for the wild places in New Zealand. Their experiences reflect the wildernesses we find within ourselves.
DALAI LAMA RENAISSANCE At the edge of the Millennium, the Dalai Lama of Tibet invited 40 of the West’s leading, most innovative thinkers to his residence in the Himalayan Mountains of Northern India to discuss the world’s problem and how we can solve them. What transpired was unexpected and powerful, and was captured by the 18 person and 5 camera film crew. The film features Quantum Physicists Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami (What the Bleep Do We Know), New Thought leader Dr. Michael Beckwith (The Secret), Revolutionary Social Scientist Jean Houston and others. The film is narrated by actor Harrison Ford.
A DEGREE OF CONCERN Shot in the treacherous mountain terrain of Ladakh, this story is about Ice Man Chewang Norphel, an observant and innovative villager who, in a bid to battle with the short winters, the receding snow and the poor availability of water for agriculture (which guarantees their yearly quota of food), has over the course of the past ten years, together with his team of dedicated fellow workers, built five artificial glaciers and succeeded in tackling climate change in his own home-grown way.
THE DRAGON WOMEN (NESHOT HADRAKON) “The Dragon Women” is the name of the street show by two jugglers, Vered and Liat. After years of working and performing together in Israel and abroad, they discover that Vered is ill. At the same time, Liat decides to get pregnant, but in an unconventional way. The film follows their last shows, while both are expectant to continuing after Vered’s kidney implant. But will the show really go on? Following these two special performers, the film offers a fresh perspective on art, on femininity, on life, and on independence.
DREAMING LHASA Karma, a young Tibetan filmmaker from New York, comes to Dharamsala to make a documentary about the Tibetan community in exile. She wants to reconnect with her roots but is also escaping a deteriorating relationship back home. One of Karma's interviewees is Dhondup, an enigmatic ex-monk who has just escaped from Tibet. He confides in her that his real reason for coming to India is to fulfill his dying mother's last wish, to deliver a charm box to a long-missing resistance fighter, Loga. Karma finds herself unwittingly attracted to Dhondup even as she is sucked into the passion of his quest, which becomes a journey into Tibet's fractured past and a voyage of self-discovery.
DYING FOR EVEREST On 15 May, 2006, double amputee Mark Inglis reached the summit of Mt Everest. It was a remarkable achievement and Inglis was feted by press and public alike. But only a few days later he was plunged into a storm of controversy when it was learned that he had passed an incapacitated climber, Englishman David Sharp, leaving him to a lonely end high in the Death Zone.
EAST (LESTE) Route first climbed by Guilherme de Ribeiro Menezes, José Bezerra Garrido, Waldemar Guimaraés and Waldinar Santos de Menezes, the East route on the Pico Maior, is today the most popular within the Three Peaks State Park and is known to climbers as Salinas. 2.296 feet in length, this legendary route was known to be the longest climbing route in Brazil for 20 years. Waldinar and Garrido return to it for this documentary, accompanied by climbers Sergio Poyares and Pedro Werneck.
EDITH COLLIER: A LIGHT AMONG SHADOWS One of New Zealand’s most talented yet underrated artists, Edith Collier (1885-1964) was sadly, a victim of her times. She created many exquisite paintings while studying in England.But when her father, who felt she was wasting her time, summoned her home, she had no option but to return. Being back in her home was crushing for her, as people had no understanding of her work, and, tragically, Collier chose to give up painting as a result. This film tells her story with sensitivity and respect, and includes much of her extraordinarily beautiful work. It is not only a fitting eulogy to a remarkable artist, but an affecting tale of cultural identity and rejection.
FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK, WE SALUTE YOU A reflection on young, urban Nepalis, this film pictures amateur rock bands vying for spots in a competitive rock concert. Their relentless efforts speak volumes of their passion for music. Seen through the eyes of these energetic teenagers, the ethics of the musical scene and of our society begin to shift.
FORGIVE! FORGET NOT! (CHHYAMA DEU! TARA NABIRSA!) This experimental documentary is the narrated story of a journalist who was detained inside Kathmandu’s infamous Bhairabnath Barracks for 15 months. It provides a mirror to the terrible times just past in Nepal, during the ‘people’s war’ and the state’s reaction to the Maoist insurgency.
GIMME GREEN Lawns are undeniably an American symbol. But what do they really symbolize? Pride and prosperity? Or waste and conformity? Gimme Green is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on the environment, wallets, and people’s outlook on life. From the limitless subdivisions of Florida to Sod farms in the arid southwest, this film peers behind the curtain of the $40 billion industry that fuels America’s largest irrigated crop – the lawn.
A GREEN AGONY This film focuses on the Sundarbans, the unique mangrove delta on the Bay of Bengal and a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the havoc that is being wrought on the biodiversity as well as the people of the area. The film especially highlights the beneficial role played by the mangroves in soil and biodiversity conservation and the threat to these mangroves due to salinity and sea level rise and the knock-on effect that will result, especially by making ecological refugees of the people.
KILOWATT OURS Kilowatt Ours is the story of filmmaker and conservationist Jeff Barrie’s 18-month journey across the southeastern US to document our energy-related problems and present practical, cost-saving solutions for consumers. Widespread problems revealed in the film include mountaintop removal, air pollution, global warming, childhood asthma, and mercury contamination. The film illustrates practical solutions that help homeowners save more than $600 per year on energy bills while helping the environment and protecting human heath.
KRIPA During school vacation, urban girl Kripa is brought back to her natal village by her aunt to live with her deaf father. Friendless and lonely, she meets a Lahure (a British/Indian Gurkha), who teaches her to adjust to the village life. She finds friendships in Neha and Thagu, and learns to feel for her father, Ode, as well. It’s not long before Kripa finds herself caring about a whole lot of social issues.
A LIFE WITH SLATE In a mountain village east of Kathmandu, the harsh lives of Thami slateminers take on almost poetic dimensions. We learn how to separate slate slabs from the precipitous rock faces. Women work alongside men, carrying heavy loads down to the village and distant markets. This film emphasises how cooperation between labouring families ultimately makes a tough life bearable, and it depicts intimate scenes of village life.
LITTLE TERRORIST Jamal, a 12 year old Muslim Pakistani mistakenly crosses the border to India, finding an unusual ally in a Hindu Brahmin, Bhola. Indian soldiers descend on Bhola's village searching for the 'terrorist' who crossed over. His neice, Rani, insists they cannot let a Muslim into their Hindu home. With Bhola and Rani grappling with the consequences of harboring a Pakistani and their deep-set prejudice against Muslims, Jamal's only hope is the humanity shared by a people separated by artificial boundaries a long time ago.
LOOP This documentary investigates modern people’s relationship with time through the eyes of some of our era’s most extreme consumers. The people we meet have each in their own way made drastic decisions concerning their life situations. A 41-year-old extreme sport practitioner aims to climb a spectacular mountain and throw himself off the mountain in a base jump. At the end of a long journey, the 92 year old philosopher Arne Naess Senior looks back at the decisions he made and the decisions he did not make. And so on.
MADE IN ITALY Young filmmaker Fabio Wuytack discovers an old film that was shot more than 100 years ago in Carrara (Italy) by the inventors of cinema, the Lumiere brothers. Fabio decides to bring the film back to the charming little marble city where even Michelangelo came to make his sculptures. With the help of a sinister cinema-owner, some rough mineworkers, an enthusiast old priest and other fascinating characters he tries to find the mythical location where the Lumiere brothers had filmed.
MISS TIBET At the foot of the hill, near the palace of the Dalai Lama, a beauty pageant is held every year. With only one participant, the job of entertainment falls on organiser Lobsang Wangyal, who has defied popular opinion to hold this event. Amidst the Tibetan exile community, the film explores identity at the nexus of tradition and modernity.
OM BRIKRAM In the 1980s, a new kind of music unleashed in Nepal. Not following the traditional aesthetics, young singers were tuning to electric guitars and western drums. Focussing on the talent of singer Om Bikram Bista, the film tracks the history of pop music in Nepal and the hurdles faced by the pop singers on their road to fame.
RAIN IN A DRY LAND This veritas feature documentary is a tale of two remarkable families, refugees from the 1991 civil war in Somalia, who find new homes in urban America. The film captures the poetry, the humor, and the astonishing resilience of these new Americans, whose open-heartedness enables them to make a new life in a mysterious and confusing land.
RITA Rita is a true story based on the filmmaker’s childhood. Brought up in a worldwide whirlwind of adventure by her outdoor photographer/travel-guide parents, Alison’s early life was filled with the stuff of dreams. It was not until the family set out on an expedition to Mt. Everest, however, that seven years old Alison was able to experience her own dream.
¡SALUD! Beautifully filmed in Cuba, South Africa, The Gambia, Honduras and Venezuela, ¡Salud! reveals the human dimension of the worldwide health crisis and the central role of international cooperation in addressing glaring inequalities. The film examines the remarkable case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls “one of the world’s best health systems,” and accompanies some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals now serving in 68 countries. Through their personal stories, and those of an array of young medical students – now numbering 30,000 from the Americans, Africa and the Caribbean being trained in Cuba, ¡Salud! invites us to explore new paths to making health a global birthright.
THE SARI SOLDIERS
SAVE OUR PLANET In a climactic way, this animation charts the impact of human activities and productions on the atmosphere.
THE SECRET OF GENYEN: EXPEDITION TO THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (DAS GEHEIMNIS DES GENYEN: EXPEDITION ZUM HEKIGEN BERG) A mountaineer dreams of unspoiled peaks, of undiscovered, concealed places. In April 2006, three mountaineers and a doctor, leaded by Karl Unterkircher, set out for a sensational expedition to the Gyalthang Mountains in Kahm-East-Tibet. Having just one satellite photo in their possession, they reach the mysterious Mount Genyen (6,200m) without knowing what to expect. With an outstanding alpine performance, the four mountaineers dare to ascend Genyen in just one day. This scarcely known landscade and many sacred Buddhist sites are documented here for the first time.
SIACHEN: A WAR FOR ICE The film covers the history and day-to-day life of the soldiers involved the world’s highest, less known and most absurd war. This conflict began 20 years ago, in 1984, and was a battle for the control over the Siachen glacier (5000 – 7500 m), located at the extreme northern edge of the Indian-Pakistan border. By illustrating the extremely harsh conditions under which this modern war is waged by these two nations, this documentary hopes to bring forth a powerful message of peace and expose the futility of arguments advanced to justify this war.
SKY BURIAL: A TIBETAN DEATH RITUAL The most common burial custom in Tibet is called the sky burial, or celestial burial, which shows respect for nature and an understanding of life. The sky burial is called jha-tor, meaning giving alms to birds. The bodies of the dead are offered to the vultures as a final act of kindness to living beings, the ultimate gesture of generosity. Sky Burial documents this death ritual at the Drigung Monastery in northern Tibet. To the Tibetans, the sky, or the universe, holds a supreme position. It is where the sacred world lies. To merge with the sky is a holy event, one that replaces the sufferings of this world with peace.
SWITCH OFF (APAGA Y VÁMONOS) Endesa—the foremost hydroelectric company in Spain and Latin America and one of the leading contributors to climate change—recently built the third biggest dam in the world, Ralco, in the Biobío River of Chile, but not without running into a major trouble with the pehuenche-mapuche indigenous people. After the flooding of the Ralco valley in May 2004, seventy indigenous families were exchanged and “invited to live in the high mountains” at the height of 2,000 meters. They have been without electricity for over three years. Mapuche spokespeople who denouce the situation have been persecuted and convicted by the Chilean courts with the anti-terrorist law. This multiple award-winning documentary covers this heartrending story.
THIN ICE Dolkar, a young Buddhist woman from Ladakh in the Himalayas wants to play ice hockey. Going against the edicts of patriarchy, she and her friends manage to make an ice rink, get equipment and a coach. They even suceed in getting the support of neighbouring Muslim girls. But the biggest problem yet is persuading some men in charge of the regional sport, who steadfastly refuse to be moved by their efforts.
TINGVONG: A LEPCHA VILLAGE IN SIKKIM The film illustrates the economic and religious changes the Lepcha of Tingvong, Sikkim, have been through since the 1940s. During this period, the Lepcha community gradually abandoned hunting and gathering, became settled agriculturalists, and embraced Tibetan Buddhism without abandoning their strong shamanic traditions. Today, rituals of both forms amiably co-exist.
VOICES OF THE ABANDONED: NEPALI CHILDREN IN THE ARMED CONFLICT The tragic tales of Nepali children affected by the eleven years of armed conflict have largely been swept aside, both by the state and by our society. This documentary is a concerted effort to make the voices, dreams and aspirations heard. The film also takes into account socio-economic issues that may have contributed to the heartrending plight of the children, and serves as a call to mobilize childcare organizations, children rights workers, government officials, political parties and civil society, who bear the responsibility of creating a safe and healthy environment for the development our children.
VOLCANIC SPRINT The sleepy town of Buea in the Southwest Province of Cameroon hosts African’s most grueling footrace: the Mt. Cameroon Race of Hope, a marathon-length sprint 10,000 feet up a live volcano… and back down again. To conquer the mountain, racers must overcome some of the cruelest conditions in sport: temperatures fluctuate 50 degrees, altitude sickness claims the weak, and loose volcanic stones can cause serious injury and even death as runners fly back down the mountain. For a select few, the rewards are lucrative: the top runners earn more in five hours than the average Cameroonian earns in four years. But nearly half of all runners will quit the race, conquered by Mt. Cameroon.
THE WAKE OF CALUM MACLEOD (FAIRE CHALUIM MHIC LEOID) North America’s first Gaelic-language short film is a whirlwind of a tale. Since his children moved from Cape Breton, storyteller Calum MacLeod is without an audience. One lonely night Calum confronts the Baron of the Wind in a storm and demands his children be returned. The old man promptly falls dead. From distant points the MacLeods assemble to attend Calum’s wake. But the deceased Calum has a surprise ending in store for them yet. Shot in the highlands of Cape Breton and featuring Gaelic storyteller Angus MacLeod and music by internationally renowned singer Mary Jane Lamond, this film is a historic venture into one of the world’s most renowned oral storytelling.
WE SHALL OVERCOME (DRØMMEN) 13-year-old Frits has fallen out of favour with the headmaster of his provincial school. The year is 1969. The world is changing rapidly and corporal punishment has been banned. The tyrannical headmaster, however, hasn't bothered to notice. Frits spends his summer holidays watching the family's first television, and is influenced by the winds of change. Martin Luther King's speeches and dreams of a better life have armoured Frits with courage and the desire for rebellion. When the headmaster steps over the line during punishing Frits, the boy takes up battle against the authorities. The story is based on actual events.
ZUM TODE: A MORTE The film chronicles a historical chapter of the resistance against fascism in Trentino Alto Adige in north Italy and the human experience of the lawyer Giorgio Tosi, one of the survivors of the massacre on 28th June 1944. On this day a group of SS soldiers organized a ruthless and repressive action against the underground movement in Trentino. In that sad episode in Trentino, civil and war laws, as well as international conventions and human rights, were violated. The historical reconstruction and the malenchonic recollection is set on the mountain, the place that for the young resistance fighters, the ‘Riva Youngsters’, symbolised safety, freedom and a dramatic passage to a grown-up life.
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