DocuWest Film Festival Announces 2011 Line-up of Documentary Films
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DocuWest Film Festival Announces 2011 Line-up of Documentary Films
September 7–11, 2011
DocuWest captures two critically-acclaimed feature films, including the opening night film “Battle for Brooklyn” and the featured documentary film “Buck.”
Golden, CO, August 8, 2011—After previewing over 300 submissions, DocuWest Documentary Festival announces 53 film selections for the 2011 line-up, comprised of 25 feature films and 28 shorts from all over the world. Selected documentaries—most of which are screening in Colorado for the first time—include 2011 film festival favorites and award-winning films that have screened at Sundance, IDFA, Hot Docs and Full Frame.
The festival will open with the Colorado premiere of “Battle For Brooklyn” on Wednesday, September 7 at 7 pm. Directed by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, this New York Times critic’s pick follows developer Bruce Ratner’s attempts to use eminent domain to finally transform the Atlantic Yards neighborhood in Brooklyn into the home of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. The Wall Street Journal claims,“Nothing depicts the borough’s backbone with more personality and urgency than ‘Battle for Brooklyn’.”
Featured documentary “Buck” will screen Saturday, September 10 at 7 pm. Directed by Cindy Meehl, this 2011 Sundance and Full Frame audience award-winning film tells the story of real-life “horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman. “Buck discovers and shares with others the transformative power of learning to communicate with animals and people not through violence or intimidation, but through leadership, sensitivity, compassion and respect,” says the National Geographic.
“I am excited to announce our 2011 documentary selections,” said artistic director, Wade Gardner. “This year, over 300 documentary filmmakers provided us the opportunity to review work that, in many cases, took hundreds of hours to cover, and many months, if not years, to complete. It’s very rewarding to present a selection of films that showcase unique lives, diverse people and critical issues that can lead to discussion, debate and reaction. The works presented are proof of the power and substance of documentary film.”
The 2011 DocuWest Documentary Film Festival will be held Sept 7–11 in Golden, Colorado. DocuWest screening venues include Foothills Art Center, 809 15th Street, Golden and the American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th Street, Golden, with additional screenings taking place in Denver and Boulder.
Tickets for the festival are $7.00 general admission. Discounts will be available on all-access festival passes and group sales. Tickets go on sale Monday, August 15, 2011. For additional information or to
purchase tickets, please visit www.docuwestfest.com, or call Foothills Art Center at 303-279-3922.
Venues and screening times may be found on www.docuwestfest.com.
2011 DocuWest Line-Up:
100 Bands in 100 Days / Nick Sonderup (director)—A love letter to live music and the bands that play it and proves the power of one music fan’s commitment to re-engage with what he loves.
A Cambodian Snack / Garret Atlakson (director)—The film follows villagers from a remote village as they scour the countryside for a popular eight-legged snack and the purveyors and purchasers of this delicate treat.
“A Mao e a Luva” (The Story of a Book Trafficker) / Roberto Orazi (director)—“A Mao e a Luva” is the book that inspired Ricardo Gomes Ferraz, to start a silent revolution in one of the most dangerous Brazilian shantytowns. His collection of books encouraged dozens of children and adults to read them. In so doing he helped to keep them away from selling drugs, prostitution and crime.
ACERCADACANA: The Sugar Cane / Felipe Peres Calheiros (director)—This Brazilian documentary touches on the long fight waged by Maria Francisca, a small farmer who for 40 years, fought an ethanol refinery to stay on her small piece of land.
Battle For Brooklyn / Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley (directors)—An historic Brooklyn neighborhood is being torn down to make way for a development that includes a new home of the New Jersey Nets. Developer Forest City Ratner Companies, with prominent politicians by its side, promises the project will bring in jobs and low-cost housing. But to make way for the developers, long-time residents are forced out of their homes. This story of the eight-year grassroots resistance effort is an epic tale of fighting for your community.
Better This World / Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega (directors)—In this compelling legal thriller, two young Texans stand trial for plotting to terrorize the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Blood in the Mobile / Frank Piasecki Poulsen (director)—We love our cell phones and the selection between different models has never been bigger. But the production of phones has a dark, bloody side.
Buck / Cindy Meehl (director)—Famed “horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman helps horses with people problems by invoking the healing magic of the human-animal bond.
Buriganga / Michelle Coomber (director)—An intimate look at life on the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a waterway teeming with activity and rife with pollution.
Caretaker for the Lord / Jane McAllister (director)—An affable Scottish church maintenance man, and the church’s aging congregation, face irrelevance together.
Challenging Impossibility / Sanjay Rawal and Natabara Rollosson (directors)—The film chronicles the weightlifting exploits of an unlikely athlete, the spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy, who began lifting at the age of 53. Incredibly, as he aged he got stronger, demonstrating on November 13, 2004 that age truly is not a barrier to achieving dreams.
Color Me Obsessed, a film about The Replacements / Gorman Bechard (director)—Named one of the top music docs of 2011 by Rolling Stone Magazine, this doc takes the first look at the influential '80s indie-rock band, The Replacements.
Convento / Jarred Alterman and Evan Meszaros (directors)—This portrait of a magical place explores nature, art, and spirit through a family’s relationship with an ancient monastery and the land.
Dragonslayer / Tristan Patterson (director)—A highly stylized portrait of a professional skateboarder, whose wanderlust approach defies commonplace assumptions about skater culture.
Everybody’s Nuts / Fabian Vasquez Euresti (director)—A collage of images unfolds, telling the story of a family, all sick from contamination by the same oil company that employs the father.
Fambul Tok / Director Sara Terry (director)—Victims and perpetrators of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war come together for the first time in an unprecedented program of tradition-based truth-telling and forgiveness ceremonies.
Fast Talk / Debra Tolchinsky (director)—College debaters now speak at unintelligible speeds. Some claim the benefits are clear—more arguments per minute that an opposing team needs to rebut. But is there a dark side to fast talk?
Fire Burn Babylon / Sarita Siegel (director)—Abandoning lives in spiritual retreat in the foothills of Montserrat, three Rasta men transform their beliefs and reinvent themselves as “rude-boy” rappers and small time hustlers on London’s East End nightclub circuit.
Flying Anne / Catherine van Campen (director)—Eleven-year-old Anne is a beautiful girl. The kind of girl you can’t take your eyes off. And the longer you look, the more you see her ‘tics’. Anne suffers from Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome which makes her body do things she doesn’t want, such as suddenly spinning around or licking everything.
Four Cubic Feet of Space / Tony Gault (director)—Artist Daniel Sprick ruminates on the fragile nature of human existence.
From The Ground Up / Beth Gage and George Gage (directors)—The delicate story of five widows of firefighters lost on 9-11 and their ten year journey through tears and triumph over tragedy.
The Grove: A Fight to Remember / Andy Abrahams Wilson (director)—Public policy and personal memories collide in San Francisco in the attempt to memorialize the tragedy of AIDS on a national scale.
Happy / Roko Belic (director)—Combining powerful interviews with the leading scientists in happiness research and real life stories of ordinary and extraordinary people around the world, the film uncovers the secrets behind our most valued emotion.
The Harvest (La Cosecha) / U. Roberto Romano (director)—The lives of three juvenile migrant workers are marked by the demands of their families on the road and their own responsibilities in the fields.
Hot Coffee / Susan Saladoff (director)—Former trial lawyer Susan Saladoff tells us what really happened when an Albuquerque woman sued McDonald’s over hot coffee.
I Will marry the Whole Village / Zeljko Mirkovic (director)—Serbian accordion player Pekka plots connubial bliss for his village’s surplus of unmarried men. And, it’s a musical!
Il Capo / Yuri Ancarani (director)—This stunning cinematic short follows an Italian machinery conductor as he deftly directs his crew to carve marble out of the mountain.
Killing in the Name / Jed Rothstein (director)—Ashraf Al-Khaled was celebrating the happiest day of his life, when an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber walked into his wedding and killed his father and 26 other family members in front of his eyes. Now, he’s rising from horrific tragedy to break the silence in the Muslim community on this taboo subject by speaking out against terrorism.
Last Fast Ride: The Life, Love and Death of a Punk Goddess / Lilly Scourtis Ayers (director)—Narrated by pop-culture icon Henry Rollins, this doc is the cautionary tale of the youth, tormented adolescence and tragic untimely demise of a legendary performer.
The Last Mountain / Bill Haney (director)—The fight for Coal River Mountain heats up as residents face off with Massey Energy over the controversial effects of mountaintop removal mining.
Love & Allegiance / Tijana Petrovic and Adam J. Smith (directors)—Set in a Las Vegas chapel, this film tells the stories of three couples on their wedding day. Weaving humor and sadness, it reveals the challenges they confront in the face of military service.
Loy Krathong / Jeffrey Waldron (director)—Each year, the people of Chiang Mai, Thailand get together to "let go." In this short film, the many origins and meanings of the Loy Krathong lantern festival are explored.
Miles Away / Daniel Dumitrescu, Bram Mervillie, and Titus Simoens (directors)—For six months, two cowboys live in what seems one of the most desolate places in the world: Cow Camp, Idaho. Life out there is tough, but it’s their friendship and the love of the lifestyle that keeps them going. Born a cowboy, die a cowboy.
Nostalgia for the Light / Patricio Guzmán (director)—Master director Patricio Guzmán travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: including the remains of political prisoners who “disappeared” after the military coup of September, 1973.
Picking Up America / Directors Marie Wicht and Michael Burke (directors)—This inspiring short film tells the story of four idealist young people that left Maryland in March of 2010 and began a trek across the country picking up roadside trash every day.
Pig Country / Andreas Koefoed (director)—A third-generation swine farmer in Denmark could lose his family’s pastoral way of life when property payments cannot be made.
The Pickle Guys / Richie Siegel (director)—This short captures the essence of what the Lower East Side used to be and what still remains. It follows Allen Kaufman, owner of The Pickle Guys as he continues to embrace the old customs of Manhattan while working hard and enjoying every moment.
The Pipe / Risteard Ó Domhnaill (director)—Shell plans to build a gas pipeline over nine kilometers of farmland in the west coast of Ireland, inciting local people to legal action, protests, and violent confrontation.
Pit No. 8 (Auk nr 8) / Marianna Kaat (director)—Yura and his sisters escaped their alcoholic parents, but to pay the bills he must mine for coal in abandoned pits near his Ukrainian hometown.
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage / Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (directors)—Featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews with notables such as Jack Black, Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Kirk Hamme (Metallica) and Gene Simmons, this film explores the forty-year career and phenomenon behind what could be the world’s biggest cult band.
Satan Since 2003 / Carlos Puga (director)—Three months' access to The Hell's Satans (Richmond, Va’s premier scooter gang) produced enough material for not only an eye-popping peek into this otherwise reclusive society, but also a satirical jab at the process of documentary film-making.
Seite Dias (Seven Days) / Tessa Hoffe (director)—Santera is one of the most popular faiths in Cuba today. This film documents the seven day ceremony and what it means to make Santo.
Sin País (Without Country) / Theo Rigby (director)—Two weeks before Sam and Elida are deported ripping apart the family, this short has intimate access that explores the complexities of the family’s new reality—parents without their children, and children without their parents.
Sins of My Father / Nicolas Entel (director)—Sins Of My Father tells the inside story of drug lord Pablo Escobar through the eyes of his only son.
Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul / Orlando von Einsiedel (director)—Skateboarding comes to Kabul, Afghanistan, offering a group of kids an escape from the desolation and violence in their war-torn country.
Sky Dancer / Jody Kemmerer (director)—Khandroma Kunzang Wangmo the matriarch and spiritual leader of a remote area on the Tibetan plateau is one of very few women ever to receive a position of power in Tibetan Buddhism.
Sound Underground / Mike McSweeney (director)—Who knew that New York’s largest orchestra was underground? Meet the street musicians who inhabit the city’s subways.
Still Here / Alex Camilleri (director)—Reflections of a man with genetic immunity from AIDS, and the impact of watching his longtime partner die from the same disease.
The City Dark / Ian Cheney (director)—When filmmaker Ian Cheney moves to New York City and discovers skies almost completely devoid of stars, a simple question—what do we lose, when we lost the night?—spawns a journey to America’s brightest and darkest corners.
The History of Nikola Tesla / Jeremiah Warren (director)—Created in under 24 hours for the 154th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's birth, this short celebrates the 19th century electrical legend.
The South Will Rise Again / Ben Guest (director)—A short documentary following two University of Mississippi students dealing with issues of race and racism amidst the backdrop of a Ku Klux Klan rally, on-campus, in November of 2009.
When China Met Africa / Marc Francis and Nick Francis (directors)—A Zambian government minister eager to create new jobs negotiates with two Chinese men, a farmer and a road engineer, eager to invest in a new continent.
About DocuWest
The DocuWest Documentary Film Festival is an annual international film festival dedicated to showing life as it is. Each fall, DocuWest welcomes filmmakers and film lovers to historic downtown Golden, Colorado, for a five-day, program of over 50 films as well as discussions, panels, and parties. DocuWest is presented by Foothills Art Center in conjunction with Artful Journey School of Fine Arts. The festival operates as a non-profit, 501 c 3, and receives support from corporate sponsors, and individual donors whose generosity provides the foundation that makes the festival possible. To learn more about DocuWest visit www.docuwestfest.com.
About Foothills Art Center
Located in Golden, Foothills Art Center (FAC) presents many dynamic and exceptional visual arts exhibitions each year, ranging from traditional to the contemporary, watercolor to sculpture, film and video to photography, and much more. FAC also offers a unique variety of adult and children’s art classes, special programs, lectures, workshops and free tours. Our mission is leading and inspiring the community through art, education and cultural excellence. Open Monday–Saturday, 10 am–5 pm, and Sunday 1–5 pm. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors. Free for members and students. Visit www.foothillsartcenter.org
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