documentary short competitionbig sky awardout of competitionmaysles retrospectivekartemquin retrospective
About Baghdad
Montana Premier 

90 minutes, 2004
miniDV, Iraq/USA


By Bassam Haddad, Adam Shapiro, Suzy Salamy, Maya Mikdashi, & Sinan Antoon

About Baghdad revolves around the return of Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi poet, to his native Baghdad this last July, after twelve years of exile in the United States. The viewer sees Antoon searching for the familiar places and faces he left behind only to discover that they’ve been covered under the wrinkles drawn by tyranny, time, sanctions and yet another war. More than a dozen Iraqis from all walks of life are introduced: Antoon’s childhood friend, middle-class women, a thirty-something cab driver, a women’s rights activist, intellectuals, a retired 70-year old man, an artist, three high-school girls, a female lawyer who was imprisoned and tortured in Saddam’s time, among others. These characters reflect on how they survived Saddam’s tyranny, UN sanctions and three wars, and share their views and feelings about a precarious present and an uncertain future being shaped by American military presence.

InCounter Productions
1212 W Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
202-494-0471 Cell
www.aboutbaghdad.com
info@aboutbaghdad.com

A Hard Straight
Northwest Premier 


72 minutes, 2004
miniDV, USA


By Goro Toshima

 

A gang member, a hustler, and a small-time dealer. They served their sentences, they're on parole. Now they're about to discover that walking out the prison gates is just the beginning. A Hard Straight is a documentary about doing time on the outside. The film interweaves the stories of two men and one woman as they attempt to construct new lives outside prison. We see them from the ecstatic moment of their first taste of freedom to the inevitable frustrations, joys, and banality of life outside of prison; and finally, to either a successfully established life on the outside or a return to prison. A Hard Straight is an extremely intimate, dramatic, and compelling film that exposes the truth behind the radical transition from prison life to society and sheds a bright and unblinking light on the profound experience of doing time and trying to go straight.

South by Southwest Film Festival 2004- Best Documentary Feature

One Arm Productions, Inc.
832 York St. #6
Oakland, CA 94610
(415) 412-2293
goroto22@hotmail.com
www.ahardstraight.com

 

Body Song
Montana Premier 


83 minutes, 2002
35mm, United Kingdom


By Simon Pummell
& Janine Marmot

 

Body Song tells the story of an archetypal human life using images taken from all around the World and The Last 100 Years of Cinema. The images span the microcosm - inside the body - through the individual - the first cry of a new born baby - to the macrocosm - archive footage of ritual celebration and the carnage of war. The editing, music, and the mythic narrative arc of the material is designed to take the viewer on a roller coaster tour of the human body and life cycle. Every possible depiction of the human life from microscopic medical to portraits and newsreels, from births to deaths, are cut to a powerful music track by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead to create a powerful and highly emotional film, with peaks of ecstasy and troughs of despair. A Century of Human Drama and Struggle captured in Moving Images.

Hot Property Films Ltd
27 Newman Street
London W1T 1PP, England
Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 9466
Fax: +44 (0)20 7323 9467
janine@hotpropertyfilms.com
www.bodysong.com

Citizen King  


110 minutes, 2004
DVCAM, USA


By Orlando Bagwell
& W. Noland Walker

 

Citizen King is a dramatic and intimate look at the last five years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life from the March on Washington to his assassination in 1968.

"The most intimate portrait of King ever." - The Wall Street Journal

Susie Lee
ROJA Productions
561 Hudson Street, #17
New York, NY 10014
susie@rojaproductions.com
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk

Code 33
Northwest Premier 

81 minutes, 2005
miniDV, USA

By David Beilinson, Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, & Zachary Werner

Veteran Miami Police detectives become overwhelmed when an investigation into the rape of a young girl expands into a citywide manhunt for a serial rapist terrorizing the Hispanic communities of Little Havana and Coral Way. Frustrated by cold leads, and armed only with a sketch that could resemble half the Hispanic men in Miami, they scour the streets and stop hundreds of men in a massive dragnet. After eluding authorities for months, he attempts to strike again and the cops are waiting. Code 33 is the new film from the makers of Horns and Halos, winner of the 2004 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

Rumur inc
164 Hall St
Brooklyn, NY 11205
718-636-0949
www.code33film.com

 Dance of Sisyphus
North American Premier 


86 minutes, 2003
Super 16mm, Germany


By Bert Schmidt

 

Ernest Montego, born Ernst Kuhn in Aschaffenburg, Germany in 1936, has been a juggler for over 50 years, and can toss and twirl balls, hoops and clubs through the air like no other. As a twelve year old, he went to the cinema and saw the duo Francis and Lottie Brunn in the Bavaria film "Tonelli" - and decided that juggling would be his future. What he didn't realize at the time was that his choice of career was actually influenced by his own half-brother and -sister, an internationally famous juggling team who had made a name for themselves in the USA with the greatest circus in the world: "Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey". A quarter of a century after that decisive visit to the cinema, Ernest Montego, now a master juggler himself, finally met his half-brother and in Las Vegas. By telling the story of this remarkable family of entertainers and their individual careers, the film depicts a profession that has all but vanished from the limelight over the past decades.

strandfilm Gmbh
Gartenstr. 96, 60596
Frankfurt am Main
Germany
49 69 96317220
schmidt@strandfilm.com
www.strandfilm.com

 The Green Bus  vs. The White House
World Premier 


76 minutes, 2005
miniDV, USA


By Sally Hanley

 

Minnesota, 2002, U.S. Senate race. Incumbent Democrat Paul Wellstone versus the White House handpicked candidate, Norm Coleman. Wellstone, who voted against the Iraq war, is killed in a plane crash. After a period of mourning capped by a controversial Memorial Service, the Democrats put erstwhile Vice President Walter Mondale on the ticket and George Bush makes his fourth visit for Coleman. Minnesota struggles with grief and absentee ballot battles to prove it is not another Florida. Narrated by Peter Coyote.

Hanley Productions
60 Martin Place
Franklin, IN 46131
415-652-2754 Cell
salhanley@aol.com
www.hanleyproductions.com

 Hijacking Catastrophe

76 minutes, 2004
miniDV, USA


By Sut Jhally & Jeremy Earp

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines
how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush Administration’s false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force. At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American
people after 9/11.

imMEDIAte pictures
4818 Park Blvd. #4
Oakland, CA 94602
510-482-9019
www.hijackingcatastrophe.org
enival@earthlink.net

 Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action
Northwest Premier 


87 minutes, 2005
Super 16mm, USA


By Roberta Grossman

 

Nearly all Indian nations sit on land threatened by environmental hazards. This is one of the most important but least-known human rights stories in America today. The realities that the tribes live with are bleak -- children play near radioactive waste, rivers that tribes depend on for food are poisoned and reservations are completely surrounded by strip mines and smoke stacks spewing noxious fumes. Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action takes a hard look at these realities and chronicles the efforts of four remarkable Native American activists leading the charge in these new Indian Wars. They are dedicated to forcing change – to save their land, preserve their sovereignty and ensure the cultural survival of their people.

Katahdin Productions
Roberta Grossman
323-337-1177
rgrossman@katahdinproductions.com
www.katahdinproductions.com

 Invisible
World Premier 


89 minutes, 2004
DVCAM, Bulgaria/USA


By Konstantin Bojanov

 

After the crumbling of the Soviet empire heroin flooded the streets of many cities behind the former Iron Curtain. It offered an alternative lifestyle largely unknown until then. In the late 1990s heroin addiction in Eastern Europe had reached epidemic proportions. Invisible takes place in Sofia, Bulgaria and follows a group of six young people on a three year journey through the highs and lows, dreams and tribulations of life with heroin addiction. The story bypasses the social problems and dynamics associated with addiction and focuses on the existential views of the participants. It is a platform for the ideas and notions of the world which surrounds them. The participants represent a group of “social outcasts” who remain largely invisible in society.

Konstantin Bojanov Projects
37 Greenpoint Ave., Suite 24
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 389 2528 Work
(646) 349 9345 Cell
kbprojects@aol.com

Kinsey
World Theatrical Premier 


90 minutes, 2005
DVCPRO50/Super 16mm, USA


By Barak Goodman & John Maggio

 

Kinsey is the first feature-length documentary film on the controversial American sex researcher. With unflinching directness, the film tells of the public and private sexual journey of a man who abided no boundaries and yielded before no obstacles in his quest to tell the truth about the sexual behavior of Americans. Traveling the country with a team of associates during the 1940' and early '50's, Kinsey interviewed more than 10,000 Americans, chronicling in intricate detail their sexual lives. From these histories, Kinsey compiled a picture of sexual diversity that flew in the face of Americans' conception of themselves. But Kinsey’s greatest journey was inside himself, as he pushed the boundaries of his own sexuality.

Barak Goodman
Bgoodman4@nyc.rr.com
435 1st St.
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-369-0880

La Sierra
Northwest Premier 


95 minutes, 2004
miniDV, USA/Columbia


By Scott Dalton & Margarita Martinez

 

La Sierra is an intimate, meditative exploration of youth during wartime. A small neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia, La Sierra is ruled by a group of young men, mostly teenagers, affiliated with Colombia‚s illegal paramilitary armies. Over the course of a year, the documentary follows the lives of three young people and their experiences of war, death, and love.

Best Documentary Feature, 2004 IFP Market

www.lasierrafilm.com

Last Man Standing


87 minutes, 2004
DVCAM, USA


By Paul Stekler

 

What are the Texas politics that propelled George W. Bush to the White House and that seem to be the blueprint for Republican grassroots success in much of the United States of late? Filmmaker Paul Stekler takes a camera to the Lone Star state to find out, in a lively, behind-the-scenes look at a pair of 2002 elections. One race is for state representative in a suburban/rural district that includes Lyndon Johnson's hometown. The other is the statewide campaign for governor that pits Bush's ascendant Republican Party versus an historic multi-cultural Democratic ticket. The characters include Karl Rove, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, and especially two, young ambitious candidates for state rep, who literally fight it out until late on election night, leaving one last man standing.

" Compared to the sounds bites that pass for coverage on the networks, and the yaps that pass for analysis on the primal-scream cable shows, this flying visit to a small election towers like De Tocqueville."
  - New York Magazine

" If everyone could see elections this gripping, more of us might get off the couch and vote."  - Austin American Statesman
" An illuminating and amusing nail-biter about two Texas campaigns and they would mean for the nation as a whole."  - IndieWIRE

Paul Stekler
RTF Dept., University of Texas
1 University Station, A-0800
Austin, TX 78712
512 471-6679
stek@mail.utexas.edu
www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/lastmanstanding/

Mardi Gras: Made in China
Northwest Premier 


66 minutes, 2004
miniDV, USA/China


By David Redmon

 

Mardi Gras: Made in China explores the production, consumption, and disposal of Mardi Gras beads. Filmed on location in Fuzhou, China and New Orleans, Louisiana, the film follows four teenage women who make beads in a factory which they are not allowed to leave. The film follows the 'bead trail' 5,000 miles from the factory of discipline to the Carnival of pleasure, where the beads are exchanged for nudity and then tossed in the garbage. When each group is shown images of the other, the cycle of misunder-standing goes a long way to explaining how the system is kept in place.

David Redmon
260 Washington Ave, Apt #5C
Brooklyn, NY 11205
203-417-3136
mgmadeinchina@yahoo.com
www.mardigrasmadeinchina.com

 Monster Road
Montana Premier 


80 minutes, 2004
miniDV, USA


By Brett Ingram & Jim Haverkamp

Monster Road explores the dazzling and fantastic worlds of legendary underground clay animator Bruce Bickford. Tracing the origins of Bickford's wildly unique sensibility, the film journeys back to his childhood in a competitive household during the paranoia of the Cold War and examines his relationship with his father, George, a retired aerospace engineer who is facing the onset of Alzheimer's Disease. Along with a glimpse into the world of a true visionary, the film reveals a story that, like childhood itself, is at once scary and funny, sad and baffling.

"Fascinating, disturbing and often hilarious."  - San Francisco Chronicle

Best Documentary Jury Prize, Slamdance 2004

Brett Ingram
2410 Springwood Dr
Greensboro, NC 27403
hovercraft@earthlink.net
www.brighteyepictures.com

 Negroes With Guns: Rod Williams & Black Power
Northwest Premier 


67 minutes, 2004
HD24P, USA


By Sandra Dickson & Churchill Roberts

 

The story of a forgotten civil rights figure who dared to advocate armed resistance to the violence of the Jim Crow South. Negroes With Guns combines modern-day interviews with rare archival news footage to tell the story of Rob Williams, the forefather of the Black Power movement and a complex man who played a pivotal role in the struggle for respect, dignity and equality for all Americans. Williams, dubbed the "violent crusader" by some, intended his philosophy of armed self-defense to work in concert with non-violent resistance; instead, he became the catalyst for what has been called a national showdown between these two opposing philosophies of the civil rights movement. Negroes With Guns is not only an incisive look at a truly fascinating man but also a thought-provoking examination of our notions of patriotism and the acceptable limits of dissent.

The Documentary Institute
University of Florida
P.O. Box 118400
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 392-4676
sdickson@jou.ufl.edu
www.negroeswithguns.com

Peaceable Kingdom
Montana Premier 


70 minutes, 2004
DVCAM, USA


By Jenny Stein & James LaVeck

 

Imagine awakening one day to realize that the work you were trained to do since birth, and the values that had been taught in your family for generations, went against the deepest part of your being. In Peaceable Kingdom, we hear from a Montana cattleman whose angst about the treatment of farm animals has alienated him from his community, a Michigan farmer whose life is turned upside down by the affection of a rescued sanctuary cow, and a young couple who stumble upon a massive injustice hidden away by the factory farming industry. An inspiring story of personal redemption, compassion, healing and hope.

Tribe of Heart
PO Box 149
Ithaca, NY 14851
(607) 275-0806 x111
mail@tribeofheart.org
www.tribeofheart.org

Rebel Without Applause
World Premier 


74 minutes, 2004
DVCAM, United Kingdom


By Tamara Barschak

 

Rebel Without Applause is a observational film about the life and times of the "Comedy Terrorist" an English comedian who made a "profession" out of hijacking high profile social and cultural events and whose most notorious gatecrash was the birthday party of Prince William in June 2003. Dressed as Bin Laden in pink ballroom gown, fake beard and red Cinderella slippers, the Comedian scaled the walls of Windsor Castle causing one of the most serious Royal security breaches in 20 years and catapulting himself to overnight international notoriety and the ubiquitous fifteen minutes of fame. The film looks at what happens when a man accidentally becomes extremely famous and unwittingly finds himself the center of a media frenzy.

Tamara Barschak
Production company is Desiderata Productions
Flat 4, 176 Walm Lane
London NW2 3AX
tamara.barschak4@ntlworld.com
www.comedy-terrorist.com

Saints and Sinners
Northwest Premier 


79 minutes, 2004
HDCAM24P, USA


By Abigail Honor & Yan Vizinberg

 

Saints and Sinners follows the challenging journey of a devoutly Catholic gay couple determined to marry in a Catholic church. Caring more about formalizing their seven-year union within the Catholic tradition than legal recognition by the state, Edward DeBonis, who grew up as an altar boy, and Vincent Maniscalco, who was baptized at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Little Italy and who attends Sunday Mass regularly, feel that getting married outside the Catholic tradition is not an option. The couple books St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, converts it to suit a Catholic mass and invites Rev. Raymond Lefebvre, a gay Catholic priest, to perform the ceremony. Saints and Sinners is a highly timely vision of love and commitment, which demonstrates that the struggle for equal rights is not just about legal benefits, but the aspiration to find acceptance and affirmation, rather than rejection, from one’s chosen religion.

“One of the most effective, intelligent, mature and romantic love stories to come across the screen recently is, of all things, a documentary.”
 - Film Threat

“Due to advocacy of same-sex marriage, fleeting rear nudity and an instance of rough language, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive.”  - Catholic News Service
“The movie presents an articulate, clear-eyed argument that same-sex unions are as worthy of sanctimony as traditional partnerships.”
 - The Star-Ledger

Persona Films
320 West 19th Street, Suite 4C
New York, NY 10011
(212) 229-0475
vizinberg@personafilms.com
www.personafilms.com

 Sixty Spins Around the Sun
Northwest Premier 


60 minutes, 2004
miniDV, USA


By Laura Kightlinger

 

Sixty Spins Around the Sun tells the story of Randy Credico a showbiz flameout who has spent the last twenty years lending his voice to unsung causes, from his support of the Sandanistas and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., to his fight against racial profiling and New York's Rockelfeller Drug Laws. The film explores Randy's flaws from his professional fatal appearance on Carson to his humiliating stint as H.R. Puf-n-Stuf. Ex-girlfriends, co-workers, and show-biz luminaries like Larry avid and Colin Quinn pepper this bizarre portrait with their insights. Part Political consciousness-raiser and part show-business expose', '60 Spins Around the Sun' is a poignant account of an under-appreciated mold breaker whose heart, energy and passion--even if all over theplace--are always in the right place.

Kelley Cheek
Pandemic Pictures
4624 Fulton Ave. #5
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
818-385-0582 Day
213-360-8464 Cell
818-385-0941 Fax
sluggish5000@aol.com

 Stan Kann: The Happiest Man in the World
World Premier 


60 minutes, 2005
miniDV, USA


By Mike Steinberg

 

An intimate portrait of Theater Organist/ Entertainer/ Vacuum Cleaner Aficionado, Stan Kann, the film chronicles Kann’s lengthy career and his lifelong obsessions with music and collecting. From rollerrink musician to Silent film accompanist, to Movie Palace gadabout, Kann has lived a charmed life of hobby and enthusiasm. An unmatched success as a network television personality - appearing as the Guru of Gadgets 77 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, 89 time on The Mike Douglas Show, and countless other appearances through the 1970s & 80s – Kann’s gregarious personality and his improvisational skills made him a household name. Utilizing interviews with Kann, archival footage of his television appearances and contemporary footage of Stan in action, the film celebrates all that is Kann, from his talent to his quirky personal interests (cars, music, and a peculiar collection of 135 antique vacuums!)

Mike Steinberg
1617 Liggett
St Louis, MO 63126
(314) 968-7487 day
(314) 918-7196 night
steinberg@webster.edu

The Fight
Northwest Theatrical Premier 


89 minutes, 2004
HDCAM, USA


By Barak Goodman & John Maggio

 

The Fight tells the interweaving stories of heavyweight legends Max Schmeling and Joe Louis, who met twice in the ring in two of the most memorable and politicized sporting events in history. Schmeling, the darling of the Nazi government, and Louis, the first African American hero for a nation demoralized by the Depression, became surrogates for two nations on the brink of war. In their up-and-down fortunes, the film traces the stories of two countries' struggles with racism and fascism.

"One of the greatest sports documentaries of all time" - The Guardian
"Riveting"  - Newsweek
"A Knockout" - Variety

Barak Goodman
435 1st St.
Brooklyn, NY 11215
718-369-0880
Bgoodman4@nyc.rr.com
www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/fight/

With All Deliberate Speed
Northwest Premier 


111 minutes, 2004
HDCAM, USA


By Peter Gilbert

 

With All Deliberate Speed weaves together the inspiring story behind Brown v. Board of Education and celebrates the brave young people from humble backgrounds who sought to uphold the U.S. Constitution by challenging the doctrine, “separate but equal,” simply by asking for school buildings that didn’t leak or buses to transport students nine miles to school. Their courage and fundamental beliefs pointed the country in a dramatically new direction.

"Illuminating"  - Los Angeles Times
"A Legal Thriller"  - National Public Radio

Howard Marcantel
Discovery Networks, US
One Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD
240.662.2979
howard_marcantel@discovery.com
www.deliberatespeed.com

 

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Copyright 2005. Big Sky Documentary Film Festival