FINALISTS FOR EAU CLAIRE PROGRESSIVE FILM FESTIVAL

1.	Looking for Eric, directed by Kenneth Loach [UK], 116 minutes, 2009

	A light-hearted Ken Loach – or as light-hearted as Ken Loach gets - and his longtime writing partner Paul Laverty add humour to the social mix in Looking For Eric, Loach’s tonally-varied but most widely accessible film which could end up being his highest-grosser. Audaciously dropping the French former footballer into a dramatic scenario involving a depressed Manchester postman, his off-the-rails gun-toting stepson, longed-for ex-wife and bantering salt-of-the-earth colleagues . . . . Eric runs the gamut from whimsy, social commentary, high drama and violence before moving into a crowd-pleasing, literally rabble-rousing finale.  [Fionnuala Halligan, Screen]
									
*2.	Privilege, directed by Peter Watkins [UK], 1967, 103 minutes 		

	Recounts the tale of Steven Shorter, a charismatic pop star, whose meteoric rise to the top as well as his huge audience appeal, most notably to a new generation of youth, results from the deliberate crafting of his performance, and especially of his persona, by a sordid combination of big business, big media, big government, and established Christian religious interests.  This neo-fascist clique seizes upon Shorter as a privileged vehicle by which to callously promote its own reactionary agenda, and, in particular, to coopt youthful rebelliousness before this threatens the economic, social, cultural, and political status quo prevalent in a mythical 1970s Britain.  Strikingly, the major ‘players’ directing this project emanate from social positions virtually identical to those at the heights of power in the US today.  Shorter . . . succeeds in performing according to script as a conscience-tortured, now obeisantly repentant, physically/sexually attractive ex-rebel who encourages his audience to follow his lead in ‘embracing conformity’ as the new chic, hip, and cool.  At the same time, though, Shorter off-stage and in what little he maintains of a private life is a sadly pathetic figure, a waif with next to no independent will of his own.  Eventually . . .Shorter makes a pitiful attempt at rebelling versus his handler-captors.  The latter, who have by this point milked the Steven Shorter phenomenon for all they could, retaliate by quickly denouncing and easily dismissing Shorter, moving on smoothly to craft and promote their next vehicle for mass indoctrination into mass submission . . . Throughout the film major figures in the Steven Shorter phenomenon are interviewed by a small number of faux-documentary reporters, whom we hear yet never see.  During the course of these interviews those who use Shorter for their neo-fascistic ends frankly, smugly admit their real motives and interests, while representing these, without any hesitation, and thereby quite chillingly, as ample justification for what they are doing.  In other words, the masses, especially of youth, need to be controlled–and disciplined–because the existing economic, social, political, and cultural order must be maintained as it is, with the new generation learning simply to accept this order for what it is and to identify with the positions that have been fabricated for them to take up in doing nothing more but maintaining and reproducing it.  Shorter’s managers contend that pop music culture can and should be coopted because it represents an especially effective mechanism to insure that this whole process will work smoothly while at the same time allowing young people harmless means both to vent rebellious energies as well as to learn, cathartically, how to convert these as they enthusiastically grovel before flag, gun, tank, and cross.  Among the most powerful scenes in the film is one in which we see virtually exactly this happening: a spectacle that bears close resemblance to a huge religious revival meeting where masses of ‘heathen’ are ‘saved’ as their minds and bodies are ‘spontaneously’ taken over by ‘the holy spirit’ who directs them to fall in line behind Steven Shorter’s messianic example . . . If anything, Privilege is more relevant now than when it was initially released . . . [	Bob Nowlan, from Unpublished Article]

*3.	Of Time and the City, directed by Terence Davies [UK], 74 minutes

	Of Time and the City is both a love song and a eulogy to Liverpool. It is also a response to memory, reflection and the experience of losing a sense of place as the skyline changes and time takes it toll.  Terence Davies returns to his native Liverpool and to his film making roots to capture a sense of the City today and its influences on him growing up in the late 40's and early 50's. Liverpool’s phoenix-like rise is portrayed like it’s never been seen before; how a city can change itself and the people under its influence… [From the Official Website]

	. . . Of Time and the City, his first film in eight years, was shown at Cannes. It was hailed as a great work of cinema, it made people cry, and has re-established Davies's reputation as one of a handful of British directors with a singular and easily recognisable vision, in other words an auteur. [Ian Jack, The Guardian]

*4.	Burma VJ: Reporting from A Closed Country, directed by Anders Høgsbro Østergaard [Myanmar], 2008, 85 minutes

	Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching.
”Joshua”, age 27, is one of the young video journalists, who works undercover to counter the propaganda of the military regime. Joshua is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when the monks lead a massive but peaceful uprising against the military regime. After decades of oblivion - Burma returns to the world stage, but at the same time foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over.  Amidst marching monks, brutal police agents, and shooting military the reporters embark on their dangerous mission, working around the clock to keep the world informed of events inside the closed country. Their compulsive instinct to shoot what they witness, rather than any deliberate heroism, turns their lives into that of freedom fighters. The regime quickly understands the power of the camera and the reporters are constantly chased by government intelligence agents who look at the ”media saboteurs” as the biggest prey they can get. During the turbulent days of September, Joshua finds himself on an emotional rollercoaster between hope and despair, as he frantically tries to keep track of his reporters in the streets while the great uprising unfolds and comes to its tragic end.  With Joshua as the psychological lens, the Burmese condition is made tangible to a global audience so we can understand it, feel it, and smell it.  [From the Official Website]

*5.	Trouble the Water, directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessen [US], 2008, 90 minutes
	
	TROUBLE THE WATER takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. It's a redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes-two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.  The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall-twenty-four year old aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts is turning her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. "It's going to be a day to remember," Kim declares. With no means to leave the city and equipped with just a few supplies and her hi 8 camera, she and her husband Scott tape their harrowing ordeal as the storm rages, the nearby levee breaches, and floodwaters fill their home and their community.  Seamlessly weaving 15 minutes of this home movie footage shot the day before and the day of the storm, with archival news segments and verite footage shot over two years, directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal document a journey of remarkable people surviving not only failed levees, bungling bureaucrats and armed soldiers, but also their own past.   [From the Official Website]

*6.	Wounded Knee, directed by Stanley Nelson [Native American], 2008, 74 minutes

	On the night of February 27, 1973, a caravan of cars carrying 200 armed Oglala Lakota—led by American Indian Movement (AIM) activists—entered Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation and quickly occupied buildings, cut off access, and took up defensive positions. When federal agents arrived, they declared, “The Indians are in charge of the town,” and a 71-day standoff ensued. Compiling an astonishing amount of archival film footage (notable for the key moments it captures) and firsthand accounts from participants, Stanley Nelson creates an immersive, comprehensive account of the occupation and its fascinating complexity. The Oglala Lakota sought redress of old grievances and broken treaties (just miles from the massacre of 1890) but also demanded the ouster of Pine Ridge tribal leader Dick Wilson, who governed through corruption and intimidation as he pursued deeply divisive policies of assimilation. Nelson also explores the climate of racism in border towns; the broad political context that shaped the AIM—its tactics, organization and ability to exploit the national media; and ultimately the role armed protest played in Native American self-conception. With its iconic images of Indians holding the government at bay, Wounded Knee not only brought national attention to an invisible community and its desperate conditions but contributed to the tribe's awakened sense of dignity and connection with their proud heritage.  [Sundance Film Festival]

*7.	Ask Not, directed by Johnny Symons [US], 2008, 73 minutes

	ASK NOT is a rare and compelling documentary film that explores the effects of the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay and lesbian soldiers and service members. The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the discriminatory law and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its passage in 1993. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how “don’t ask, don’t tell” affects them during their tours of duty, as they struggle to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they can trust. The film also explores how gay veterans and youth organizers are turning to forms of personal activism to overturn the policy. From a national speaking tour of conservative universities to protests at military recruitment offices, these public events question how the U.S. military can claim to represent democracy and freedom while denying one segment of the population the right to serve. [From the Official Website]

*8.	When I Came Home, directed by Dan Lohaus [US], 2006, 70 minutes

	WHEN I CAME HOME is a film about homeless veterans in America: from those who served in Vietnam to those returning from the current war in Iraq. The film looks at the challenges faced by returning combat veterans and the battle many must fight for the benefits promised to them. Through the story of Herold Noel, an Iraq War veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and living in his car in Brooklyn, WHEN I CAME HOME reveals a failing system and the veteran's struggle to survive after returning from the war.  When I Came Home is, regardless of how pessimistic it seems, still quite inspiring and will hopefully be very influential. There is no reason for the government to ignore vets at home anymore than they should abroad. For any conservative politician who spouted nonsense about how Americans who are against the war are also against the troops, this film is a must-see. For everyone else, it is simply a reminder of hypocrisy and historical recurrence. [Tribeca Film Festival]

*9.	Killer’s Paradise, directed by Giselle Portenier [Guatemala], 2006, 83 minutes

	Since 1999 more than two thousand women have been murdered in Guatemala, with the numbers escalating every year. Yet, lawmakers and government officials continue to turn a blind eye. Powerful and uncompromising, Killer's Paradise uncovers one of the most emotionally-wrenching hidden human rights abuses taking place, while exposing the impunity allowed by an inept judicial system. With its history of almost four decades of civil war, Guatemala is a troubled society but it can also be seen as a microcosm of the pervasive violence and injustice against women that exists in the world today . . . .  With stunning realism, Killer's Paradise documents these heartbreaking stories. Victims' friends and family, police officers and investigators, rapists and gang members - even a serial killer who still roams freely - offer gripping testimonies to the stark reality in Guatemala. Meticulously crafted and beautifully shot, Killer's Paradise is a bold film that captures the raw emotions of all those affected and the harsh reality of a struggling nation. [National Film Board of Canada]

*10.	Chávez Ravine: a Los Angeles Story, directed by Jordan Mechner [US], 2005, 30 minutes

	In 1949, photographer Don Normark visited Chavez Ravine, a close-knit Mexican American village on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles.  Enchanted, he stayed for a year and took hundreds of photographs documenting community life.  But little did Normark know that he was capturing the last images of a place that was about to disappear—within a few short years, the entire neighborhood would be gone. CHAVEZ RAVINE: A Los Angeles Story tells the story of how this Mexican American community was destroyed by greed, political hypocrisy and good intentions gone awry.  During the early 1950s, the city of Los Angeles forcefully evicted the 300 families of Chavez Ravine to make way for a low-income public housing project. The land was cleared and the homes, schools and the church were razed.  But instead of building the promised housing, the city—in a move rife with political controversy—sold the land to Brooklyn Dodgers baseball owner Walter O’Malley, who built Dodger Stadium on the site.  The residents of Chavez Ravine, who had been promised first pick of the apartments in the proposed housing project, were given no reimbursement for their destroyed property and forced to scramble for housing elsewhere.  Fifty years later, filmmaker Jordan Mechner explores what happened, interviewing many of the former residents of Chavez Ravine as well as some of the officials who oversaw the destruction of the community.  Narrated by Cheech Marin and scored by Ry Cooder and Lalo Guerrero, CHAVEZ RAVINE combines contemporary interviews with archival footage and Normark’s haunting black-and-white photographs to reclaim and celebrate a beloved community of the past.  [From the Official Website]

*11.	The Forest for the Trees: Judi Bari v. the FBI, directed by Bernardine Melis [US]. 2006, 57 minutes

	THE FOREST FOR THE TREES is an intimate look at an unlikely team of young activists and old civil rights workers who come together to battle the U.S. government. Filmmaker Bernadine Mellis is the daughter of 68-year-old civil rights lawyer Dennis Cunningham.  Dennis started out his career representing the Black Panthers and the Weathermen. Judi Bari was an Earth First! leader who was one of the first to place as much importance on timber workers' lives and families as she did on the legacy and future of the trees.  But that strategic relationship was too much of a threat.  Her car was bombed in 1990, and three hours later, she was arrested as a terrorist--charges that were later dropped.  Convinced it was a ploy by the FBI to discredit her and Earth First!, Judi decided to sue.  Cunningham took on Judi's case and after 12 years, Judi Bari v. the FBI finally gets a court date. Knowing this is one of her father's most important cases, Mellis is there at strategy meetings, at breakfast, driving to and from the court, documenting her morally driven, very tired dad.  Not your typical "Take your daughter to work day," THE FOREST FOR THE TREES offers access into a unique father-daughter relationship, the painfully short yet extraordinary life of Judi Bari, and a piece of U.S. history that everyday grows increasingly resonant as once again the lines between dissent and terrorism are being intentionally blurred. [Bullfrog Films]

12.	Boy A, directed by John Crowley [UK]. 2007,106 minutes

	Jack (Andrew Garfield) is released from prison, finally, at the age of 24; having been institutionalized for most of his life. He and another boy murdered a child, when they were themselves children.  The film follows Jack's attempts to readjust to the world outside of confinement and restart a life which never really got going.  Under the fatherly mentor-ship of Terry (Peter Mullan) his parole contact and social worker, he experiences a coming of age, which would normally have happened years ago.  But forces from the past are constantly upon him, as we learn more about the events leading up to the crime which has ruined so many lives, there is an increasing sense of suspense, intrigue and ultimately doom: the tabloid press and Terry's real son are not going to let things lie.   [From the Official Website]

	The film, directed by John Crowley and written by Mark O'Rowe, paints an accurate portrait of working-class life in the north of England, the grimness of the streets contrasting with the beauty of the countryside . . .  . the movie poses the age-old question of forgiveness. At this moment in Chicago, children with handguns kill people. Can we say, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do? [Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times]

	Overall, the film is very strong and compassionate. The festival catalogue cites an oft-quoted Faulkner observation in its notes on Boy A: “The past is never dead. It’s not even the past.” The movie rightly sets its sights on the atrocious social reasons, and social forces (courts and media), why this is so destructively true for Boy A and Boy B and many others. It does so in a truthful and moving manner. [Joanne Laurier, World Socialist Website]

*13.	The Bubble, directed by Eytan Fox [Israel/Palestine], 117 minutes

	Vacillating provocatively between romantic comedy and political tragedy, The Bubble is photographed with a sunny brightness that belies the gravity of its intentions.  Set primarily in the fashionable Sheinkin Street district of Tel Aviv, the story follows three left-leaning 20-somethings (two men and a woman) whose notion of political action is to hold a “rave against the occupation.”  But when Noam (Ohad Knoller), a sweet-natured music-store clerk and reserve soldier, meets a handsome Palestinian named Ashraf (Yousef Sweid), their escalating affair forces everyone to face reality in the cruelest possible way.  Squeezing a lot of conflict — sexual, ethnic and intellectual — into its 117 minutes, The Bubble is about the appeal of self-delusion and the warmth of comfort zones.  Noam’s best friend, Yali (Alon Friedmann), a cafe manager, reproaches Noam for habitually choosing unavailable men yet denies his own attraction to casually aggressive partners.  Meanwhile, Ashraf’s fond sister (Roba Blal) and her future husband, a Hamas leader aptly named Jihad (Shredy Jabarin), negate Ashraf’s homosexuality by coercing him into a straight relationship.  Eytan Fox directs with compassion but also with impatience for his characters’ self-centered naïveté, veering somewhat uneasily between these tones and relying on the competence of his actors to smooth the transitions.  And though his ending is more poetic than just, it effectively diverts partisan sympathies toward a more general condemnation of violence.  Mr. Fox may be a romantic, but he understands that love is rarely all you need. [Jeanette Catsoulis, New York Times]

*14.	California Company Town, directed by Lee Anne Schmitt [US], 2008, 76 minutes

	This documentary extends a critical gaze at the landscape of California industrial towns built and abandoned by large corporations during the mid-20th Century era of U.S. capitalist expansion.  Analytic editing juxtaposes these dilapidated landscapes with archival images from their pasts, in turn producing startling--if subtle--recognition of the limitations and structured absences of the visual archive and of the epistemology of traditional documentary reliance upon the archive as a guarantee of historical truth and authenticity.  Hence this film may be described, after Foucault, as an archeaology of cinematic knowledge regarding these working-class ghost-towns, as well as a prophetic warning about the direction of the social struggle bound up with their histories and memories in the wake of their replacement--also depicted in the film--by overpriced middle-class housing and hi-tech office parks now just as easily subject to devastation and decay amidst today's heightened cycles of economic boom-and-bust. [From the Director]

*15.	Liberation Day (Munyunrangabo), directed by Lee Isaac Chung [Rwanda], 2007, 97 minutes

	Arkansas native Lee Isaac Chung’s Independent Spirit Award-nominated feature debut takes a closer look at the ongoing fallout from last decade’s brutal Rwandan genocide. The story follows Munyurangabo (Jeff Rutagengwa) and Sangwa (Eric Ndorunkundiye), two young boys from opposing tribes who test their friendship on a quest for some measure of justice. Munyurangabo, in search of the people who killed his father, a Tutsi, in the wave of genocide that swept the nation in 1994, steals a machete from a Kilgali market. Hutu-born Sangwa agrees to take his friend from their refugee camp to his family’s native village. When the boys arrive in the seemingly peaceful Hutu town, they learn that old hatreds run deep, and that the ethnic lines they are so ready to overlook still carry a lot of weight for others.  Korean-American director Chung studied medicine at Yale before launching his filmmaking career. While teaching film at a Christian youth outreach in Rwanda, he recruited a local cast of non-professional actors and filmed Munyurangabo over the course of 11 days. The first film ever made in the Kinyarwandan language, Chung’s multiple award-winner has been called “one of the decade’s most moving feature debuts” (Eye Weekly Toronto) and “a voyage to the heart of African history, memory and identity.” (International Herald Tribune)   [Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival]

*16.	Hunted Like Animals, directed by Rebecca Sommer [US/Hmong], 2007, 77 minutes
 
	Hunted Like Animals is an eye-opening documentary about an ongoing, but unknown, genocide — against the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. Coerced into joining the CIA’s anti-communist efforts during the Viet Nam war, this ethnic minority became a Secret Army. When the U.S. pulled out of Southeast Asia in 1975 and the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists, the Hmong became targets of retaliation and persecution. Hundreds of thousands fled the country; others ran to remote mountainous regions of Laos. Over thirty years and two generations later, the Hmong in hiding are still mercilessly hunted, attacked, raped, tortured and killed by the military. Since 2004, the crackdown has intensified and those who can escape seek refuge in Thailand. The traumatized refugees have not been promised protection or help. Instead, they are threatened with deportation back to Laos, the very place from which they barely escaped. In this documentary, the refugees speak for thousands of voiceless people still trapped in the jungle, surrounded by Lao and Vietnamese soldiers — and hunted like animals. [From the Director’s Website]

*17.	The Betrayal (Nekakhoon), directed by Ellen Kuras [US, Laos], 2007, 92 minutes

	Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath's debut film, THE BETRAYAL (Nerakhoon), tells the story of a family’s epic journey from war-torn Laos to the streets of New York. Filmed over the course of 23 years, NERAKHOON movingly chronicles the family’s struggle to reckon with that which was left behind while forging a new and difficult life in a foreign land. Thavisouk gives a first-hand account of his own boyhood survival of war, his later escape from persecution and arrest in Laos, his miraculous reunion with his family and their journey to America, and the second war they had to fight on the streets of New York City. Thavisouk’s mother also gives powerful testimony of her unflagging efforts to single-handedly raise and shepherd a family of ten amidst almost constant danger.  As its involvement in the Vietnam War deepened and conflict spilled into the surrounding territories, the United States clandestinely operated within Laotian borders. By 1973, almost 3 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos in the fight to overcome the North Vietnamese - more than were used during WWI and WWII combined. A former commander in the Royal Army, Thavisouk’s father is recruited (alongside thousands of his countrymen) by the CIA, and works intelligence along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. When the United States withdraws from Laos and the Communist Pathet Lao gains power, Thavi’s father is declared an enemy of the state and sent to a hard labor re-education camp – putting Thavi and his family in mortal danger. Repeatedly arrested because of his father’s US affiliation, 12-year-old Thavi makes a life-changing decision to leave his family and Laos behind, swimming across the Mekong River on two inflated plastic bags to a refugee camp in Thailand. Reunited with his mother and siblings two years later, the family flees to the United States in 1981, his father presumed gone forever. Hoping to find safety and redemption in a country whose ideals had attracted their father to service, the family’s optimism evaporates after their American sponsors deposit them in single cramped room in a crowded tenement building – right next door to a volatile crack house in Brooklyn, New York. Disoriented by the western culture and desperate to survive, Thavisouk and his mother try to imprint their eastern cultural values onto the younger children before the family disintegrates completely. Robbed of his own childhood, Thavisouk struggles to reconcile his dual role as head of the household and older brother. He journeys through the rest of the film trying to reunite his lost family and regain a sense of peace and harmony in a world marked by borders and chaos.  In THE BETRAYAL (Nerakhoon), Kuras and Phrasavath have created a lyrical film that fluidly incorporates archival footage, cinema verite, interview material and visually poetic montages.  The result is a story of what it means to be banish, of the far-reaching consequences of war, and of the resilient bonds of family. Thavisouk’s unforgettable journey reminds us of the strength necessary to survive unthinkable conditions, and of the human spirit’s inspiring capacity to adapt, rebuild, and forgive.  Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath's debut film, THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON), tells the story of a family’s epic journey from war-torn Laos to the streets of New York. Filmed over the course of 23 years, THE BETRAYAL movingly chronicles the family’s struggle to reckon with that which was left behind while forging a new and difficult life in a foreign land. Thavisouk gives a first-hand account of his own boyhood survival of war, his later escape from persecution and arrest in Laos, his miraculous reunion with his family and their journey to America, and the second war they had to fight on the streets of New York City. Thavisouk’s mother also gives powerful testimony of her unflagging efforts to single-handedly raise and shepherd a family of ten amidst almost constant danger.  As its involvement in the Vietnam War deepened and conflict spilled into the surrounding territories, the United States clandestinely operated within Laotian borders. By 1973, 3 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos in the fight to overcome the North Vietnamese; more than were used during WWI and WWII combined. A former commander in the Royal Army, Thavisouk’s father is recruited (alongside thousands of his countrymen) by the CIA, and works intelligence along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. When the United States withdraws from Laos and the Communist Pathet Lao gains power, Thavi’s father is declared an enemy of the state and sent to a hard labor re-education camp – putting Thavi and his family in mortal danger. Repeatedly arrested because of his father’s US affiliation, 12-year-old Thavi makes a life-changing decision to leave his family and Laos behind, swimming across the Mekong River on two inflated plastic bags to a refugee camp in Thailand. Reunited with his mother and siblings two years later, the family flees to the United States in 1981, his father presumed gone forever.  Hoping to find safety and redemption in a country whose ideals had attracted their father to service, the family’s optimism evaporates after their American sponsors deposit them in single cramped room in a crowded tenement building – right next door to a volatile crack house in Brooklyn, New York. Disoriented by the western culture and desperate to survive, Thavisouk and his mother try to imprint their eastern cultural values onto the younger children before the family disintegrates completely. Robbed of his own childhood, Thavisouk struggles to reconcile his dual role as head of the household and older brother. He journeys through the rest of the film trying to reunite his lost family and regain a sense of peace and harmony in a world marked by borders and chaos.  In THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON), Kuras and Phrasavath have created a lyrical film that fluidly incorporates archival footage, cinema verite, interview material and visually poetic montages.  The result is a story of what it means to be in exile, of the far-reaching consequences of war, and of the resilient bonds of family. Thavisouk’s unforgettable journey reminds us of the strength necessary to survive unthinkable conditions, and of the human spirit’s inspiring capacity to adapt, rebuild, and forgive.   [From the Official Website]

*18.	Courting Justice, created by Ruth Cowan and directed by Jane Lipman [South Africa], 71 minutes, 2008

	From tyranny to democracy. Fourteen years after the defeat of apartheid, South Africa’s fledgling democracy is acclaimed for its constitutional promise of comprehensive human rights and unprecedented judicial reform. But what is essential for transformation to succeed?  Courting Justice takes viewers behind the gowns and gavels to reveal the women who make up 18 percent of South Africa’s male-dominated judiciary. Hailing from diverse backgrounds and entrusted with enormous responsibilities, these pioneering women share with candor, and unexpected humor, accounts of their country’s transformation since apartheid, and the evolving demands of balancing their courts, country, and families. Creator Ruth Cowan, a feminist and developing world scholar, is a leader in the fields of microfinance, human rights, judiciary development, and gender and race issues. With acuity and spirit, her film chronicles the hard fought progress of achieving gender and racial justice in a burgeoning new judiciary. It is a pivotal work that examines the exciting transformation of an entire legal system, through the intimate, unique, and inspiring stories of women working to change it from the bench.

19.	Hyenas, directed by Djibril Diop Mambety [Senegal], 1992, 110 minutes

	Anyone can be bought if the price is right. That is the message of Friedrich Durrenmatt's viciously misanthropic drama "The Visit," in which a woman buys an entire town in order to wreak revenge on the lover who betrayed her decades earlier. In "Hyenas," Djibril Diop Mambety's pungent film adaptation of the story, the setting has been moved from Europe to Africa.  Although the film by the Senegalese director keeps the outlines of the Durrenmatt play intact, the change of locale lends the tale a new political dimension. The vengeance that the richest woman in the world brings to the dusty African village of her birth is an avalanche of irresistible Western paraphernalia that will certainly eradicate the area's tribal culture.  The desert town of Colobane is so destitute that in the movie's opening scene its ramshackle city hall is repossessed. Its social center is a scantily stocked market run by its most popular resident, Dramaan Drameh (Mansour Diouf), a jolly white-bearded grocer who keeps his cronies happy by doling out glasses of cheap wine.  The village would probably go on wasting away on the fringe of the Sahara were it not for the triumphal return of Linguere Ramatou (Ami Diakhate), a woman who left the town in disgrace 30 years earlier. Linguere, who was Dramaan's lover at the time, has mysteriously emerged as the world's richest woman. The townspeople, hoping that she will end their poverty, fall over themselves to offer her a welcome-home banquet.  Though Dramaan is married, he woos Linguere obsequiously, ignoring the fact that she is now a stone-faced hag with a prosthetic leg and hand. At the height of the celebration, she announces that she intends to donate "one hundred thousand millions to the town." But there is a catch. She produces witnesses who swear that 30 years ago Dramaan paid them to testify that they had slept with her so he could deny the paternity of her unborn child. Before the town can get its reward, Dramaan must pay with his life.  Deeply insulted, the townspeople at first side with the grocer. But as greed eats away at their souls, their mood slowly shifts. The men in the town soon begin sporting fashionable yellow shoes from Burkina Faso. Truckloads of electric fans, air- conditioners, refrigerators and television sets arrive.  The more spoiled the townspeople become, the more luxuries they insist that Dramaan sell them on credit. In the film's most surreal moment, Linguere imports a carnival complete with a ferris wheel, fireworks and ads for Pepsi posted everywhere. The town goes delirious with the cheap thrills . . .  even done so lightly, the film still carries a sting. And its symbolism is enriched by frequent shots of fiery-eyed hyenas restlessly stalking the outskirts of the town like evil spirits alert to the scent of decay.   [Stephen Holden, New York Times]

*20.	The World According to Monsanto, directed by Marie-Monique Robin [France], 108 minutes

	The World According to Monsanto is an in-depth Documentary that looks at the domination of the agricultural industry from one of the world’s most insidious and powerful . . .  This is one of the most powerful, must see films for anyone interested in the behind the scenes world of the food industry, and how just one world dominating corporation holds the keys and patents to much of the worlds food supply.  Monsanto, which started out as one of the planets largest chemical companies is also reposonsible for such chemical compounds as Agent Orange, Bovine Growth Hormone, PCBs and genetically-engineered crops. [Twilight Earth]  A new movie has dealt yet another severe blow to the credibility of US based Monsanto, one of the biggest chemical companies in the world and the provider of the seed technology for 90 percent of the world’s genetically engineered (GE) crops.  The French documentary, called “The world according to Monsanto” and directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes and health scandals. [Greenpeace International]

*21.	Tulpan, directed by Sergei Dvortsevoy [Kazakhstan], 2008, 100 minutes

	Winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, acclaimed Kazakh documentarian Sergey Dvortsevoy’s first narrative feature is a gorgeous mélange of tender comedy, ethnographic drama and wildlife extravaganza. Following his Russian naval service, young dreamer Asa returns to his sister’s nomadic brood on the desolate Hunger Steppe to begin a hardscrabble career as a shepherd. But before he can tend a flock of his own, Asa must win the hand of the only eligible bachelorette for miles—his alluringly mysterious neighbor Tulpan. Accompanied by his girlie mag-reading sidekick Boni (and a menagerie of adorable lambs, stampeding camels, mewling kittens and mischievous children), Asa will stop at nothing to prove he is a worthy husband and herder. In the tradition of such crowd-pleasing travelogues as The Story of the Weeping Camel, Tulpan’s gentle humor and stunning photography transport audiences to this singular, harshly beautiful region and its rapidly vanishing way of life. [Zeitgeist Films]		

*22.	XXY, directed by Lucia Puenzo [Argentina], 2007, 86 minutes

	Alex is not like other girls. She is a 15-year-old with a secret, one that no other can claim. Her parents keep her hidden away at a coastal town in amongst the dunes of the shoreline, buying time before they must decide on a life-threatening operation.  When old family friend and plastic surgeon Ramiro arrives with his teenage son Álvaro, Alex begins to realise that his visit could change her life forever. As the parents wrestle with the complications that will arise as Alex reaches adulthood, Alex and Alvaro become close, their relationship causing tensions amongst the locals. However, as the parents battle it out to instill a sense of open-mindedness amongst their society, it is the children who prove themselves to be flexible in understanding the sexual leanings and complexities of others. [Peccadillo Pictures]  The genius of the film is that it tells much more than Alex's story alone. In fact, it becomes several stories, all of which focus on free will and personal destiny. We watch Alex's family struggle with allowing her to choose her path in life and, in so doing, find new grounding in their own lives. On the eve of his family's departure, Alvaro attempts to bond with his father. The results seem heartbreaking at first, yet we realize it's the boy's first step toward becoming his own person. The minimalist writing of this scene alone, enacted by Piroyansky with his eyes brimming with tears, is simply shattering.  Puenzo's gently masterful direction has elicited unerring performances from her cast, particularly Efron and Piroyansky. Darín and Bertuccelli are equally fine as Alex's parents.  The major elements of the film - Puenzo's script and direction, Natasha Braier's crystalline cinematography, the entire cast's performances - blend slowly and quietly at first, but once they take hold of our attention, we cannot look away. [David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle]