Unearthing the Pen
Unearthing the Pen – Session 1 (Thursday, October 7th, 2-5pm)
UK/Uganda, 2009, 12 minutes
Director/Producer: Carol Salter
“Beautifully photographed, this film poignantly tells the story of a young Ugandan boy’s desperate desire for an education in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds: forty years ago, tribal elders buried a pen, placing a curse on the written word.” – Silverdocs Film Festival
Even longer ago, white men came and took away the children to make them fight in their wars, using the pen to enlist them. The boy still suffers from the cultural consequences of this symbolical curse. Unearthing the Pen is an intimate portrait of a boy’s struggle to reconcile tradition with his desire to learn.
http://www.unearthingthepen.com/
Awards:
Go Short Award
Best Documentary 2010
Best Documentary: Rushes Short Film Festival
Women In Shroud
Women in Shroud – Session 1 (Thursday, October 7th 2-5pm)
Canada/Iran, 2009, 73 min.
Directors: Farid Haerinejad, Mohammad Reza Kazemi
Producers: Paul Lee, Farid Haerinejad
This documentary follows a dedicated group of Iranian lawyers and activists working together to counter the injustice of “Stoning” in the Iranian legal system. In Iran, this means risking everything, even their lives. We encounter women sentenced to death for adultery and other moral crimes under the Iranian Islamic laws. The concerned activists are determined to overturn these death sentences with a new campaign; “Stop Stoning Forever”.
Awards: Cinema for Peace Human Rights Award – Berlin International Film Festival 2010 Golden Butterfly, Amnesty International’s A Matter of ACT Award for the most impressive human rights activist / organisation: Shadi Sadr – Movies that Matter Festival 2010
Tainted Wolves
Tainted Wolves – Session 1 (Thursday, October 7th, 2-5pm)
USA, 2009, 8 min.
Director/Producer: Amitabh Avasthi
Each year, nearly 70 percent of gray wolf pups in Minnesota die from a virus common in domestic dogs. Scientists believe that a series of rare mutations and increased air travel have helped the feline virus jump from cats to dogs, and then to gray wolves. TAINTED WOLVES explores the threat to gray wolf populations from canine parvovirus, the factors helping its spread, and the lessons we can draw from viruses—H1V1, SARS, Coronavirus, H1N1 swine flu—that jump from one species to another.
Shot in the style of a news documentary, the film includes interviews with wolf biologists and epidemiologists, as well as aerial footage of the wolves’ range, to illustrate how encroachment by humans may be creating more suitable conditions for the spread of canine parvovirus. The film is of interest to a wide general audience passionate about science, wildlife, and the environment.
Link suggested by filmmaker: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1546025/plotsummary
Tenacity on the Tasman
Tenacity on the Tasman – Session 1 (Thursday, October 7th, 2-5pm)
England, 2009, 75min.
Director/Producer: George Olver
In 2005, after 124 days alone at sea Olly (Oliver) Hicks returned to Falmouth having just set two world records: he is the first person to row solo from America to England and the youngest ever, at 23, to row an ocean. The expedition introduced the British public to an ambitious, brave and new-age explorer. Setting foot on land in Falmouth, Olly was greeted by his sponsor Sir Richard Branson and by his friend Prince William. It was then that Olly announced his new plan: to row solo around the world. The Tasman Sea is known as one of the most challenging sections of water on the planet, this is the story of a solo rowing circumnavigation attempt that has the crossing of the Tasman for starters. Nearly 100 days, solo in a sea such as this has to test even the best.
Website/Trailer: www.tenacityonthetasman.co.uk
*Official Selection ECU European Film Festival, 2010
