Some of the headlines pertaining to documentary with a little bit of commentary. Trying out a new format here. Let me know if you think it works or not.
Reviews / Commentary
Born to be Wild 3D
Stonewall Uprising and OUT in America: Good summaries of both with commentary from the community and about public broadcasting.
Festivals
CineFest 2011 — In Philly, features Exporting Raymond, The Interrupters, and Morgan Spurlock’s latest.
2011 Davis Feminist Film Festival — described as a grassroots festival representing underrepresented artists and connecting “art to social issues.”
DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2011 — Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams will be the closing title. Other titles include NO! The Rape Documentary, Detroit Wild City, and Silver Girls.
Hot Docs: The Women — Women and Hollywood writer Melissa Silverstein offers a round-up of the women-directed titles coming to Hot Docs this year.
Sarasota Film Festival — Honoring Geena Davis with an award and screening Miss Representation.
The World through Women’s Eyes — one to watch grow in the coming years. It’s actually through a the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and not a film department.
Production Coverage
Demi Moore jets into Nepal for a charity mission: Moore is there for five days to work on a CNN documentary about sex trafficking. Whenever I see stories like this, I wonder how the celebrity’s presence limits the possibilities for the documentary being made and what kinds of opportunities it offers as well.
Filmmaker makes documentary series about home births in Maine: Maker Nicolle Littrell made the decision to have her baby at home, and the decision and this project has turned into a longer running one rather than a single piece.
Uranium Film Festival ended with Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth
With unexpected surprises that added glamour to the First International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro which ended Saturday night (28th of May 2011) in the historical Manson “Laurinda Santos Lobo”. The filmmakers and guests were treated to a feast of food and traditional drinks, like Cachaça Magnifica and Caiprinhas of Rio de Janeiro.
From 34 international productions surrounding the nuclear fuel chain and radioactive risks four winners were selected.
The best short film of this first International Uranium Film Festival – selected by the Jury – was a Costa Rican production of director Pablo Ortega of the University of Costa Rica: Uranio 238: La Bomba Sucia del Pentágono, Uranium 238: The Pentagon’s Dirty Pool.
“In my 25 years as an anti-DU activist this experience has been a highlight in the exposure of a very serious problem that faces mankind today: The use of radioactive waste as a military weapon”, says Damacio A. Lopez, the executive director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) who represented the film together with Isabel Macdonald from the San José Quaker Peace Centre of Costa Rica.
Isabel Macdonald: “Winning this award will help the efforts towards an international treaty banning DU weapons world-wide.”
The best feature film – selected by the jury – was a new production by Director Michael Madsen from Denmark “Into Eternity”. An impressive film which deals with the philosophical questions of the issues concerning the permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste. The film brings the audience down thousands of meters into a rock formation in the countryside of Finland where the construction of the first high-level nuclear waste storage facility is been built.
The audience award for the best short film were given to: “Césio 137. O brilho da morte”, directed by Luiz Eduardo Jorge of Brazil. His documentary shows the events that transpired in a real live tragedy about the release of Caesium-137 into a populated area in 1987 in the city of Goiânia, Brazil. This was the worst radioactive accident in Latin America, which cost the lives of many people and the health of hundreds or possibly thousands of survivors.
“Césio 137. O brilho da morte” was produced by Laura Pires as well as the winner of the audience award for the best movie: “Césio 137. O pesadelo de Goiânia”. Director Roberto Pires contracted famous Brazilian actors for this important and first ever made film of this nuclear accident in central Brazil. The script of “Césio 137. O pesadelo de Goiânia” is based on statements by the victims and medical personal attending the victims, taken by Roberto Pires at the time of the accident, who himself some years later died from radiation exposure.
A big surprise for the invited guests was the appearance of three representatives of the indigenous peoples of Brazil who gave a musical performance and a prayer to the Uranium Film Festival and its guests. Chief Alfonso Apurina from the Amazon state Acre and his two companions from other indigenous peoples were invited by the festival organizers in respect of their traditional land rights to Brazil and in respect to their struggle to preserve the Old Indigenous Museum of Rio de Janeiro, that is in danger because of construction of projects to accommodate the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
The First International Uranium Film Festival and its Award Ceremony ended with another, a real “bombastic” surprise. “Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth”, the newest production of the famous film director Peter Greenaway was shown to the selected audience. “We received that fantastic short film of Greenaway today”, said Festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “We have decided that Atomic Bombs on Planet Earth will be the Opening Film of the 2nd International Uranium Film Festival May 2012 in Rio de Janeiro!”
Marcia Gomes de Oliveira
Coordinator Uranium Film Festival
http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org
info@uraniumfilmfestival.org
Posted by marcia | June 11, 2011, 8:03 am