DocuWorks Showcases in NY & LA

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 19:15

Written by Laura Blum

From July 30 to August 19, 2010, Manhattanites and Angelinos can catch theatrical screenings of  22 nonfiction films (including five shorts) during the International Documentary Association's DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase.

You can catch IDA's showcase in New York City at the IFC Center (323 Sixth Av. at W. Third St.) and at the ArcLight Hollywood (6360 W. Sunset Boulevard) in Los Angeles. All of the films are in the running for a 2011 Academy Award. 

One of them is Waste Land, a loving portrait of garbage. Rot and refuse are not the sort of thing you ordinarily equate with beauty, but then there's nothing ordinary about Brazilian artist Vik Muniz or his photographic work celebrating the art of recycling. The documentary by Lucy Walker follows Muniz from Brooklyn to Brazil's largest trash heap to photograph its gleaners.

Now in its 14th edition, DocuWeeks offers members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences an official forum for viewing the films under consideration for a statuette. But lay cinephiles are also welcome to take in some the year's finest documentary works, which they might otherwise only find on a big screen in festivals. This year's slate representing more than 12 countries was culled from such festivals as Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, SXSW, Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and Silverdocs.

One of the home-spun features is Colony, about the mysterious disappearance of bees. If it leaves you feeling stung, salve your soul with such hopeful films as High School Musical, Music from the Big House, Louder Than a Bomb, Most Valuable Players and For Once in My Life, all of which in one way or another celebrate poetry or music – even in places like Angola Prison.

HolyWars answers to a different muse: religious fundamentalism. Pakistan, Lebanon, the UK and hinterland America serve as its prisms into the age-old strife between Islam and Christianity.

Other DocuWeeks features include Apaporis, Budrus, Family Affair, For Once in My Life, Freedom Riders, My Perestroika, Pushing the Elephant, Quest for Honor, Steam of Life, Summer Pasture This Way of Life. The five shorts on the roster are Keep Dancing, Killing in the Name, The Labyrinth, Mozambique and Sun Come Up.

Stanley Nelson Rides Again, in "Freedom Riders"

For more details on the IDA, its Oscar-qualifying screenings, and its mission to support documentary filmmaking around the world go to: http://www.documentary.org

DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase
July 30 to August 19, 2010

IFC Center
323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street
212-924-7771
New York

ArcLight Hollywood
6360 W. Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA

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