Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films Festival 2012
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- DirectorEmad BurnatGuy DavidiStarsEmad BurnatSoraya BurnatMohammed BurnatA documentary on a Palestinian farmer's chronicle of his nonviolent resistance to the actions of the Israeli army.
- DirectorPetr LomStarsSalwa El-HossiniMaikel NabilMark NabilA year after the euphoria on Tahrir Square, the demonstrators' goals have not even come close to being reached. The country is ruled with an iron fist and there is still no democracy. The 'eye of the world' has moved elsewhere. How things have been in Egypt since 25 January 2011 is explained using five portraits of people from various walks of life. What have the sacrifices on Tahrir Square at the start of 2011 yielded? Unfortunately, not a great deal; this much is apparent from the stories of five Egyptians involved, about six months after the historic revolution. A young horse herdsman tells how he drove to the square to ask for the pyramids to be opened again; he only just managed to survive that day. A taxi driver talks about his six years in prison, the torture, and how the police now behave worse than ever. A young woman talks about intimidation and unjust arrests, which according to human rights lawyers are happening continuously. The young Salwa describes how she met her first love during the demonstrations. And then the brother of Michael Nabil: a blogger who was arrested because of his internet comments and is now on hunger strike - he is followed on Tahrir Square during the protests that still continue against the ongoing violations of human rights.
- DirectorSean McAllisterAn intimate portrait of Yemen as the revolution unfolds, told through the eyes of tour guide leader Kais, an intelligent commentator on the changing times in Yemen, offering poignant moments of reflection, loss, anger and hope on the unknown road to revolution. Filmed over the course of the past year with exceptional access to a country where no other camera crews or journalists were allowed to remain, we see Kais's journey from pro-President to reluctant revolutionary, joining angry protesters in the increasingly bloody streets of Sana'a.
- DirectorMarcus VetterStarsMarcus VetterIsmael KhatibFakhri HamadA Fellini-Esq documentary that takes place in the West Bank city of Jenin and follows a local initiative to re-open the old and only cinema in the city. Cinema Jenin, founded in the 1960s, was once the largest cinema in the Palestinian territories. Today it stands as a hollow echo of its society. It is crumbling and seems just about to collapse; taking all the old stories it once contained crashing down with it. And yet, there are still hints of its glamor days for anyone to see. An extraordinary group of Palestinians hope to restore glory to the city and perhaps to themselves, embarking on an almost impossible mission to re-open the cinema.
- DirectorManon LoizeauStarsNeda Agha-SoltanMahmoud AhmadinejadSohrab ArabiWhile winds of freedom blow through the Arab world, the Iranian youth waits. They were the first to rise up against their leaders in 2009.
- DirectorSofia Amara
- DirectorKai SehrStarsMirwais AhmasAsheesh BhallaMaysam FarajInspired by Skateistan, Afghanistan's first skateboarding school, this emotional feature-length documentary is a journey deep into the lives of Afghanistan's urban youth. It chronicles the efforts of a grass-roots organization to build the first skate hall in Kabul, follows the first international crew of pro skaters on their visit to Afghanistan, and tells a tale of the irrepressible hope found within a nation's children.
- DirectorEd MoschitzThey gave the smugglers all their money and risk their life on their journey across borders: Three women from a small town in Moldavia, living now in Austria as cleaning women. On top of their hard job they live a life in illegality without documents, far away from their children and family for years.
- DirectorFernand MelgarA 9 months immersion in the administrative detention center of Geneva, one of the 28 deportation centers in Switzerland.
- DirectorMassimo D'AnolfiMartina ParentiIl castello (The castle) is a movie about Malpensa airport, a place where bureaucracy, procedures and control put a serious strain on the freedom of individuals, animals and goods passing through. The airport is a strategic place where all law enforcement agencies of a country come together. Here's where new control measures are tested: a permanent security testing area unlike any other public place. Italian and foreign secret services, customs police, Guardia di Finanza (financial police), Carabinieri (police), security guards, sniffer dogs, currency dogs and explosive detector dogs, closed circuit tv cameras everywhere and the ever-growing fear of an impending unknown danger. By watching the law enforcement agencies in operation we put together a portrait of a customs border in four movements.
- DirectorSalomé JashiA journey into a lively but rotting building in a provincial Georgian town. It once used to be a hotel called 'Bakhmaro'. At the center of the building is a restaurant whose walls are covered with bright green and orange plastic foam and where tables are set, waiting for customers - who rarely come. A Chinese shop, a slot machines and a political party office can also be found here. The building is a microcosm intruded by the constant anticipation of change. It is a model of this troubled country with its endless demonstrations and opposition rallies. On the backdrop of political events, somehow, all of life is here.
- DirectorJulia IvanovaIn a small Ukrainian town, Olga Nenya, raises 16 black orphans amidst a population of Slavic blue-eyed blondes. Their stories expose the harsh realities of growing up as a bi-racial child in Eastern Europe.
- DirectorLise Birk PedersenStarsMasha DrokovaOleg KashinViktoria DrokovaMasha Drokova joins Nashi, a Russian ultra nationalist youth group, at the age of 16 and rapidly ascends its ranks, famously garnering a medal and the opportunity to kiss Vladimir Putin. The film details her growing disillusion with the group's leaders and her falling in with the anti-Putin opposition, especially a journalist and blogger named Oleg Kashin, who gets brutally attacked.
- DirectorLogan MuchaStarsSergey YeninNicolai AlekseevRobert BiedronYoung Sergey is an openly gay activist in Belarus and has endured violence from police and skinheads. When his boyfriend is shot on the border he begins his fight for gay equality. Preparing for a defiant stand on the streets of the nation's capital Minsk, Sergey and a few brave activists brace to show their PRIDE against the last dictatorship in Europe.
- DirectorDara KellChristopher NizzaWhen the South African government promises to 'eradicate the slums' and begins to evict shack dwellers far outside the city, three friends who live in Durban's vast shantytowns refuse to be moved. Dear Mandela follows their journey from their shacks to the highest court in the land as they invoke Nelson Mandela's example and become leaders in a growing social movement. By turns inspiring, devastating and funny, the film offers a new perspective on the role that young people can play in political change and is a fascinating portrait of South Africa coming of age.
- DirectorDaniele AnastasionEric StraussStarsJoshua Milton Blahyi Jr.Janice BlahyiJoshua BlahyiTells the story of Joshua Milton Blahyi - aka General Butt Naked - a brutal warlord who murdered thousands during Liberia's horrific 14-year civil war. Today, the General has renounced his violent past and reinvented himself as Evangelist Joshua Milton Blahyi. This portrait takes viewers on Joshua's crusade to redeem his past, as he confronts his victims and attempts to rehabilitate the former child soldiers who once fought for him. Whatever you make of him -- liar or madman, charlatan or genuine repentant -- the film challenges viewers to ask important questions about both the power and the limits of forgiveness, amid a nation's search for healing and justice.
- DirectorFredrik GerttenStarsFredrik GerttenAlex RiveraAlfonso AllendeDole Food Company wages a campaign to prevent a pair of Swedish film-makers from showing their documentary about a lawsuit against the company.
- DirectorMichael CollinsWhen a teenager from a political family in the Philippines is accused of a double murder, the country's entire judicial system is put to the test after years of alleged corruption.
- DirectorGiovanni GiommiA beautiful story about the island in Bangladesh where prostitues live with their families and work. A true masterpiece!
- DirectorRebecca HaimowitzVaishali SinhaAbout the human experiences behind the phenomena of 'outsourcing' surrogate mothers to India.
- DirectorDavid RedmonAshley SabinStarsAshley ArbaughRachel BlaisOlivia ArbenA documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.
- DirectorTanaz EshaghianInside Afghanistan's Badam Baugh Women's Prison, where half of the inmates are locked up for 'moral crimes.
- DirectorSebastian MezThe film focuses on the experiences of three women from eastern Europe who left home in hope for something better and whose life is now dominated by pain and exploitation. While anonymous voices read letters which enforce the feelings and experiences of these women, the images of the film range from their hometowns to abstractions of possible places and memories. Its the effort trying to eliminate the lurid character of the issue of human trafficking and to deal in a strict and reduced form of film.