Beats of the Antonov
Hajooj Kuka | Sudan/South Africa
Director Hajooj Kuka immerses us in the world of the Sudanese farmers, herders and rebels of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions, who defiantly celebrate their heritage and tend their lands in the face of a government bombing campaign.
I Am Here
Fan Lixin | China
Lixin Fan, director of the award-winning Last Train Home, takes a very different look at contemporary China with this documentary that follows the eager young hopefuls who audition for the country's most famous televised singing competition.
Iraqi Odyssey
Samir | Iraq/Switzerland/Germany/United Arab Emirates
Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting 3D documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
Mami Sunada | Japan
This engrossing documentary takes us inside Studio Ghibli, the renowned Japanese animation studio that created such classics as Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro andPrincess Mononoke.
The Look of Silence
Joshua Oppenheimer |Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/United Kingdom
Joshua Oppenheimer's follow-up to his extraordinary documentary The Act of Killing follows a family who, after viewing the previous film, discovered and confronted the former right-wing militiamen who murdered their son during Indonesia's anti-communist purges of the mid-1960s.
Merchants of Doubt
Robert Kenner | USA
Documentarian Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) investigates the shadowy world of professional skeptics, whose services are bought and paid for by corporations, think tanks and other special interests to cast doubt and delay public and governmental action on climate change.
Monsoon
Sturla Gunnarsson | Canada
Sturla Gunnarsson (director of the Festival People’s Choice Award-winning documentary Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie) journeyed to India to create this stunningly shot meditation on the phenomenon that some call "the soul of India."
National Diploma
Dieudo Hamadi | France/Congo
Director Dieudo Hamadi follows a group of teenagers in his hometown of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose struggles to pass the state exam that is the key to their future are further complicated by their country's endemic culture of corruption.
National Gallery
Frederick Wiseman | France/USA
Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman (La Danse, Crazy Horse, At Berkeley) takes us inside the inner workings of London’s National Gallery.
Natural Resistance
Jonathan Nossiter | Italy/France
Jonathan Nossiter follows up his hit 2004 documentaryMondovino with this profile of four radical vineyard proprietors in Italy, who are striving to produce all-natural wines in the face of market and governmental pressure.
The Price We Pay
Harold Crooks | Canada
Director Harold Crooks (Surviving Progress) once again blows the lid off the dirty world of corporate malfeasance with this incendiary documentary about the dark history and dire present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harbouring profits in offshore havens.
Red Army
Gabe Polsky | USA/Russia
A smash hit at this year’s Cannes, director Gabe Polsky’s exhilarating documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Soviet hockey in the 1980s.
Roger & Me
Michael Moore | USA
Presented in a new digital restoration to mark its 25th anniversary, Michael Moore's brash, bold and often hilarious documentary heralded a new generation of activist filmmaking.
Seymour: An Introduction
Ethan Hawke | USA
Ethan Hawke directs this intimate documentary portrait of classical pianist, composer, author, teacher and sage Seymour Bernstein.
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait
Ossama Mohammed, Wiam Simav Bedirxan | Syria/France
The astonishing collaboration between exiled Syrian filmmaker Ossama Mohammed and young Kurdish activist Wiam Simav Bedirxan distills footage from thousands of clandestine videos to create a shattering, on-the-ground documentary chronicle of the ordeal being undergone by ordinary Syrians in the ongoing civil war.
Sunshine Superman
Marah Strauch | USA/Norway/United Kingdom
A heart-racing documentary portrait of Carl Boenish, "the father of BASE jumping," whose early passion for skydiving led him to ever more spectacular — and dangerous — feats of foot-launched human flight.
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Nick Broomfield | USA/United Kingdom
Perennially provocative documentarian Nick Broomfield (Aileen Wuornos: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Biggie and Tupac) digs into the case of the notorious serial killer known as the "Grim Sleeper," who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of twenty-five years.
This Is My Land
Tamara Erde | France
Israeli-born director Tamara Erde visits six independently-run Israeli and Palestinian schools to investigate how history is taught in this contested region.
Roger Waters The Wall
Roger Waters, Sean Evans | United Kingdom
A rib-rattling, sonically stupendous account of the Pink Floyd frontman’s continent-crossing concert tour with his epic stage show The Wall Live.
The Wanted 18
Amer Shomali, Paul Cowan | Canada/Palestine/France
Through stop-motion animation, drawings and interviews, directors Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan recreate an astonishing true story from the First Palestinian Intifada: the Israeli army’s pursuit of eighteen cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared "a threat to the national security of the state of Israel."
PLEASE NOTE: The 5:30pm screening (Scotiabank 14) of The Wanted 18 on Friday, September 12 has moved to 5:00pm (Scotiabank 13).
The Years of Fierro
Santiago Esteinou | Mexico
An empathetic and powerful documentary portrait of César Fierro, a Mexican convict who has spent thirty years in a Texas prison awaiting his sentence of execution by lethal injection.
The Yes Men Are Revolting
Laura Nix, The Yes Men | USA
The sequel to the hit 2003 documentary follows activist-pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano as they pull the rug out from under mega-corporations, government officials and a complacent media in a series of outrageous stunts designed to draw awareness to the issue of climate change.
