The orangutan Nenette in Philibert’s film is like the Mona Lisa: a victim of her rarity, drained by curiosity. We watch her watching us watching her, writes Emma Davie. Another film in Edinburgh which also explores the “unseen” was The Edge of Dreaming.
Beate Arnestad is proving to be one of Norway’s most interesting international filmmakers at the moment, writes Truls Lie. From addressing the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, she went on to track a major court case after the genocide in Rwanda. Her documentaries depict individuals under extreme pressure.
How can cinema reflect and explain the complexities of the 2008 economic crisis, asks Emma Baus. Three films presented at Cannes this year may answer the question in totally different ways. A fiction blockbuster like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; a talking head documentary like Inside Job, and a mock trial featuring real witnesses, lawyers and judge: Cleveland versus Wall Street.
Two Icelandic films from the producers at Ground Control Productions show us Iceland past and present and look at the impetus to protest in the face of capitalist ecology. But does the desperation run deep enough to say yes to any investment deal, asks Melanie Sevcenko
In Warsaw the events focus on bringing acclaimed foreign documentaries to Polish audiences, in Krakow the Festival concentrates on promoting Polish films to an international audience.
A contemplative “portrait” of the grief felt by the unemployed in Greece today
For Neda is the tragic story of 29-year-old Neda Agha Soltan whose death, during a street protest against the 2009 elections in Iran, was recorded on a mobile phone and shared via the Internet. This footage went viral, igniting national and international outrage.
Features, reality TV series, blogs and websites provide new ways to document and help the victims of earthquakes around the world, writes Peter Wintonic. Natural disasters are today increasing exponentially, affecting 250 million people per year.
In this film about supporting an African, they understand education is the only thing that can change someone’s life.
Bill Cunningham travels about New York City on his bicycle shooting photos of people. He is a man with immense integrity.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard points to fresh dissent within oppressive regime. A television film gives us first-hand testimony from recent defectors.
The entirety of the Collapse narrative is director Chris Smith’s attempt to probe the possibility of industrial downfall flounders in his subject’s uncertain authority.