Global South

Angola Saudades From the One Who Loves You
Richard Pakleppa / JAR, Angola / 2005 / 65 min.

For the first time in history Angola is experiencing freedom. After twenty–six years of war the country has finally been able to enjoy a period of peace over the past three years. This is an important reason for joy and celebration. Instead, however, the director Richard Paklepp has captured on film a prevailing mood of melancholy in the country. People exhausted by years of war have not yet seen much in the way of change. Each year Angola moves higher up the ladder of the world's biggest oil producers. It also has a substantial amount mineral wealth, especially top–grade diamonds. Nevertheless, there are still not enough schools and hospitals in the country, and the population's main concern continues to be the need to find enough food to keep from starving. Only the bombardments have subsided. Bands of children now try to survive in the ruins left behind on the ground, earning money by washing luxury cars. All the country's wealth goes into the already bulging pockets of new colonialists from the West, who are interested in a piece of the country's young market. The complaints of ordinary people from the towns and countryside are fused into a single melodic psalm composed by the young rapper MCK, who is one of local youngsters washing cars. He simply but accurately identifies the problems in his country, a country in whose future he nonetheless believes in and therefore celebrates and defends in a continuous poem.
 
Kontakt: sandman@ctnet.co.za, esther.van.messel@firsthandfilms.com, www.firsthandfilms.com

At the Epicentre
Ruhi Hamid / UK / 2005 / 48 min.

Only a white mosque was left standing in the Indonesian Lampuuk after the destructive tsunami. Other houses were torn to pieces, burying the victims underneath. The Indonesian government has not provided almost any help to the region and foreign organisations keep sending useless packages of toys and sanitary equipment that are of no use to the local people. Many of those who had survived left and those coming to Lampuuk from outside only want to use the situation for their own benefit. Even Bill Clinton together with George Bush senior, or radical Islamic group, has not bought any technology with them to clean the debris, which would help people much more than speeches and formal words of sympathy. All that the local people can rely on are their own hands, and it seems that there is some special energy that gives them strength and drives away despair. Ruhi Hamid's documentary was made in cooperation with BBC, and it tells the story of those who decided to stay. The story of Hasballah Ahba who organises the town reconstruction and seems to be a good candidate for a town board member. Of Anita, a chemistry student, who teaches children under the open sky because the school has been destroyed. And about her pupil who was the only one in his family to survive, and now dreams about building a hospital in his hometown when he grows up.
 
Kontakt: ruhihamid2005@yahoo.com, sunny.dimitriadou@bbc.co.uk

Bullshit
PeA Holmquist, Suzanne Khardalian / Švédsko / 2005 / 73 min.

Two prize–winning independent Swedish filmmakers embarked on a two–year journey with Indian nuclear physicist and anti–globalisation activist Vandana Shiva. They portray a woman full of energy and optimism, fighting for the rights of impoverished farmers. Shiva is their voice at meetings with the top leaders of major players in the world economy; accusing Coca–Cola of environmental pollution, for example, and charging other major corporations with committing crimes against traditional means of production and making inhabitants of the Third World into slaves. To make the picture complete, the filmmakers visited the major corporations to get a view of her opponents. With their camera they visited companies developing genetically modified crops, attending many international congresses, as well as demonstrations. They also meet her main enemy, Barun Mitra. His supporters gave her the “The Bullshit Award” for sustaining poverty. This documentary exposing the relationship between developed nations and the Third World is underscored by Shiva's impassioned speeches and the vitriolic attacks of her opponent. Although primarily an examination of one particular viewpoint, the film also examines a number of other issues facing contemporary society. Can we allow powerful corporations to govern society and control its food sources and diet? What is happening to the unique traits of different societies? The filmmaker poses questions not only with words, but also images. How can we find a balance between India's diverse countryside and the uniform industrial greenhouses in Europe or the US?
 
Kontakt:  Swedenpea.holmquist@chello.se, www.peaholmquist.com, info@deckert–distribution.com

China Blue
Micha Peled / USA / 2005 / 87 min.

 „Made in China“ is no longer a label for second–rate products. Big international companies with renowned brands are moving their production to China, which has opened up to foreign investors, enticing them with cheap labour. Millions of peasant families send their children to work far away from home and „find happiness“. Filmmaker Micha X. Peled managed to get his camera into one of the factories where denim jeans are manufactured for the western market. The factory manager is part of the country's successful elite; he came from the farmlands and worked his way up to the top step by step. Sixteen–year–old Jasmine is at the bottom of the pile, hoping she can make enough money to go home for the New Year. While her employer paints calligraphy featuring factory slogans to give to rich clients from the west, Jasmine writes a journal by torchlight, escaping to the fictional world of a dream girl who learns magic from a kung fu master so that she can help her family and punish evil slave–traders. As if she realized that in the world of „maximum profit and minimum cost“, she is of little importance. This engaging documentary received the DOEN Amnesty International Award at the IDFA Festival in Amsterdam.
 
Kontakt: www.teddybearfilms.com, janrofekamp@filmstransit.com

The Curse
Petr Orozovič / Česká republika / 2006 / 75 min.

TV-reportage about situation in Democratic republic Kongo, which belongs to the poorest countries of the world, although it has got enormous natural resources. People are tired of government, which is not able to solve increasing problems of this country. Current government does not want to abdicte and social friction is still rising up. The streets of the city has been flooded by thousands of outcast children, so called shagies, who survive as beggars and criminals. Lots of them have lost their families or their parents have accused them of beeing possessed by devils. The fight against these demons became a good buisness for many people in Kongo. Medicine-men and various „priests“ are trying to expel the evil from children. They are ready to scorch children with an iron, put them in a straight-jacket or torture them with hunger to achieve this aim. Chantal Poullain listens to „children of devil“, medicine-men and people who are trying to rescue these children.

Kontakt: info@a-newsreport.com

Djourou, a rope round your neck
Olivier Zuchuat / Francúzsko / 2004 / 65 min.

Djourou means a debt in Bambara. A debt that becomes a rope around your neck, creates poverty and deprives of freedom. In the seventies, sub–Saharan countries borrowed millions of dollars in developmental aid, which helped improve their social situation for some time, but also brought harsh consequences. Due to changes in the global economic situation, the interest grew so high that the poor countries would never be able to pay it back. It is a vicious circle proven by the fact that for a dollar they borrowed, they have paid seven back, and still owe four. Director Olivier Zachuat dives deep into the problem, uncovers its causes, returns back to history to the moment the debt had originated and tracks its growing over time, systematically mapping the economic and political backstage and machinations of global market that uncompromisingly moves the remote pieces in the play. He helps the spectator understand the absurd situation, when help becomes a scourge; an invisible monster milking the country. The director interprets the search for causes in the form of an essay. Contemplation mixes with facts, poetic language takes turns with economic vocabulary, and vivid African colours are replaced by plain scenes from governmental offices. All together it creates a picture of the issue asking 'Who helps whom?' 

Kontakt: courrier@lesfilmsdici.fr, www.lesfilmsdici.fr

Favela Rising
Jeff Zimbalist, Matt Mochary / USA, Brazília / 2005 / 78 min.

Rio de Janeiro, a destination for tourists and the stage of Carnival, conceals enormous injustices, violence and danger in the shadowy parts of the city. The urban ghetto is the seat of the poor and a place where numerous drug gangs operate. It is a place periodically purged by a corrupt police force. As a location plagued by violence, it is tough place to grow up for children, who on any given day can expect that someone close to them will die. However, it was in the heart of this misery and desperation that a man named Anderson Sa appeared with his dream of destroying the old society and building a better one. This messiah assembled a group of people around himself and they resolved to use music to struggle against the cruel living conditions in the area. Sa founded the musical group Afro–reggae, which not only became a resistance group against the mafia and the police but also gave rise to the establishment of a children's arts academy, where children can learn to play musical instruments, sing, and dance, which successfully fills in for an anti–drug, prevention program. Anderson's belief has spread infectiously through the surrounding areas, and the crime rates in the slums have been falling.  Every minute of the film brings a new and unexpected look at a tough world and creates a portrait of an exceptionally strong and charismatic man. The entire length of the documentary is moreover dynamically paced with drumbeats and rapping that is well performed. The message does not ring hollow. It is not an empty utopia from another world; on the contrary, it's a live wire. 

Kontakt: marina@lumina–films.com

Lost Children
Oliver Stoltz, Ali Samadi Ahadi / Nemecko / 2004 / 97 min.

 „First I stabbed her in the head, then I stabbed her in the heart, she only cried out once. My commander said: OK, she's finished, let's go,“ says Kilama, a boy aged 13, who spent one year in the Sudan–funded rebel band known as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has been leading a guerrilla war against government forces in Uganda for the past nineteen years. Throughout this time, the LRA has been terrorising the people of Uganda, ambushing, robbing, abducting and slaughtering thousands of civilians. In all, more than 200,000 people have died as a result of the conflict. The LRA frequently abducts children as young as eight years old and turns them into soldiers. In this deeply moving and harrowing documentary, filmmakers Oliver Stoltz and Ali Samadi Ahadi follow the lives of four former child soldiers, two girls and two boys, who managed to escape from the LRA and have sought refuge in one of four reception centres for war returnees. Not only do the children's bodies bear the scars of conflict, their minds are deeply marked and traumatised by the horrors of war. They suffer from headaches and persistent nightmares. Although social workers Grace and John can do much to alleviate the children's physical and mental pain, the most difficult task is to reintegrate them back into their own communities. Paradoxically, their own families often regard them with the most suspicion, fear and contempt.
 
Kontakt: o.stoltz@dreamerjointventure.de, www.dreamerjointventure.de, hertel@telepool.de

Padre Alegría
Marek Poláček / SR/ 2006 / 30 min.

Thirty years of bloody civil war are over and Angola is in peace since three years. However, in the poor quarters of Luanda people continue to struggle for living. Father Milan Zedníček has found his own medicine against suffering and desperation: joy. Some people even don’t know his name is Milan. They call him “Padre Alegría” – “Father Joy”.

Kontakt: marek@lux.sk

Visioning Tibet
Isaac Solotaroff / USA / 2005 / 56 min.

He who looks into the silver waters of the Lhama Lhatso lake, will see his past and future lives. But for most Tibetans their dream about a journey to the 'Lake of Answers' will not come true. Living on the roof of the world, as Tibet is symbolically called, has more perils than those of the Chinese occupation we can hear of. Sharp sunshine causes eye diseases – mostly cataract. When untreated, those diseases may even cause blindness. In 1995, the American ophthalmologist Marc Lieberman visited a hospital in Lhase to train local doctors. Filmmaker Isaac Solotaroff introduces Lieberman's project through doctors fighting against the problems of badly working hospitals and telling the story of Tibetans who set off for the journey across the plains to undergo the treatment. After a 14–hour workday, the happiness of cured people is satisfactory enough for tired doctors. Dr. Lieberman has realised a similar project in India and has been working in Tibet with small breaks for 10 years now. His career proves that he himself has been gifted with the ability 'to see'.

Kontakt: isolo@earthlink.net, www.visioningtibet.com

The Zartalé Women´s Journey
Claude Mourieras / Francúzsko / 2005 / 90 min.

Zartala is a poor Afghani village inhabited by diseased and hungry, but also colourful, people whose characters are as diverse as the colours of their robes. All the villagers share the same harsh circumstances, which mean that death is painful, but waiting for it even more so. Then two women appear, a humanitarian worker and a member of the local electoral committee. They not only bring the locals medical assistance and education, but also the opportunity to take part in decisions concerning the future of Afghanistan. Though they cannot alter the current destitute state of the villagers, they carry a glimmer of hope for their offspring. The narrative follows the story of Zeinab, a young girl whose efforts to educate herself were cut short when her mother contracted tuberculosis. Following Zeinab and her father on their endless trips from the village to the hospital and back, the filmmaker traces a symbolic journey between blind faith and medicine, illiteracy and education, the world of tradition and contemporary civilisation. The story of Zeinab becomes a symbol for the predicament of the entire village. The director focuses on frank and direct testimony without a voiceover. The invisible camera seems to float freely in space, travelling through the arid and hilly country, locating each of the villagers in turn and giving the audience a realistic view of the hardships they face in this inhospitable country. Inauspiciously, the filmmaker enters into their houses, allowing the viewer to share their inner feelings. The slow tempo, quiet testimonies and gentle music give the harsh reality a poetic dimension, creating an open space for meditation.
 
Kontakt:  aorr@novaprod.tv