A documentary that follows six young dancers from around the world as they prepare for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world.
Director Bob Entrop has been fascinated for years with the life of Roma and Sinti gypsies, their peculiar practices, codes and taboos. He tries to gain a better understanding of this vexed community - traditionally associated with campfires, abundant eating and drinking and music. He poses some imaginative questions in his film. More than once, however, he is told that something is none of his business or that 'those matters' are not discussed, especially not in front of a camera. Still, he manages to lift a corner of the veil.
DEALING AND WHEELING IN SMALL ARMS is a political documentary on the uncontrolled widespread of small arms, which rule and ruin the lives of a growing number of people in developing countries. Through the eyes of different experts whose lives depend on small arms, the film shows the causes and impact of the trade—both legal, 'grey' and illegal—in small arms and its ammunitions, in particular in regions where the European Union and the United Nations are active, such as former Yugoslavia and Congo. Especially interesting for the western audience, the film shows how brokers—often under some 'organized' legal cover—buy weapons collected by the EU and NATO during their mission in Bosnia. These brokers transfer the weapons directly to African battlefields where they continue their killing lifespan unhindered.
This is a documentary about the provocative American cartoonist John Callahan. At the age of 21 Callahan got involved in a serious car-accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. Drawing cartoons has become his way to express himself although he can hardly use his hands. With a raw style, pen clutched between his hands, he draws cynical and ruthless observations of mankind. His work is praised and criticised. Callahan has provoked protest-marches and receives many angry letters. He was fired at The Miami Herald journal after drawing a cartoon in honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Day; a little boy with a wet spot on his pyjamas saying: \Mommie I had a dream\.
Sisters doing it for themselves in Amsterdam's Red Light District. Louise and Martine Fokkens are identical twins. For over fifty years they were working as prostitutes. They freed themselves from the control of their pimps, ran their own brothel, and set up the first informal trade union for prostitutes. They are familiar faces in Amsterdam's Red Light District, but soon they will bid their farewells. The Ladies Fokkens is a portrait of these remarkable women, as well as a history of the Red Light District over the past fifty years.
An investigation of the emotional and economic value of Africa's most lucrative export: filmed poverty. Deep in the interiors of the Congo, Dutch artist Renzo Martens single-handedly undertakes an epic journey and launches an emancipatory program that helps the poor become aware of what is their primary capital resource: Poverty. After three years of traveling through the Democratic Republic of the Congo he asks the question: \Who owns poverty?
The collar awarded to the winners of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The 3-day competition includes everything from delicate chocolates to precarious six foot sugar sculptures and requires that the chefs have extraordinary skill, nerves of steel and luck. The film follows Jacquy Pfeiffer, founder of The French Pastry School in Chicago, as he returns to France to compete against 15 of France's leading pastry chefs. The filmmakers were given first time/exclusive access to this high-stakes drama of passion, sacrifice, disappointment and joy in the quest to have President Sarkozy declare them one of the best in France.
Plunder: The Crime of Our Time is a hard-hitting investigative film by Danny Schechter. The News Dissector explores how the financial crisis was built on a foundation of criminal activity uncovering the connection between the collapse of the housing market and the economic catastrophe that followed.
