My Name Is Salt

My Prairie Home

November 2013 •English

A true Canadian iconoclast, acclaimed transgender country/electro-pop artist Rae Spoon revisits the stretches of rural Alberta that once constituted “home” and confronts memories of growing up queer in an abusive, evangelical household.

Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love

October 2013 •English

When Marvin Hamlisch passed away in August 2012 the worlds of music, theatre and cinema lost a talent the likes of which we may never see again. Seemingly destined for greatness, Hamlisch was accepted into New York’s Juilliard School as a 6-year-old musical prodigy and rapidly developed into a phenomenon. With instantly classic hits ‘The Way We Were’ and ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and scores for Hollywood films such as The Swimmer, The Sting and Sophie’s Choice and the Broadway juggernaut A Chorus Line; Hamlisch became the go-to composer for film and Broadway producers and a prominent presence on the international Concert Hall circuit. His streak was staggering, vast, unprecedented and glorious, by the age of 31 Hamlisch had won 4 Grammys, an Emmy, 3 Oscars, a Tony and a Pulitzer prize: success that burned so bright, it proved impossible to match.

The Do Gooders

October 2013 •English

British documentary filmmaker Chloe Ruthven’s grandparents were aid workers in Palestine. Growing up, she had avoided getting too involved in the subject, recalling how mention of the country made all the adults in her life angry. In her forties, after revisiting her grandmother’s book on the subject, she starts to research a documentary on the effects of foreign aid in the area and is shocked at the continued reliance on it there. Along the way she meets Lubna, a Palestinian woman who acts as her driver and fixer, and who is fiercely critical of Western aid efforts in her country. What begins as a quest to better understand her family history turns into a deeply emotional account of two women trying to understand one another. Ruthven’s determination to focus her film on deeply subjective analysis results in a unique joining of the acutely personal and complexly political. (Source: LFF programme)

Justice

May 2004 •Portuguese

In Justiça, Maria Ramos puts a camera where many Brazilians have never been – a criminal courtroom in Rio de Janeiro, following the daily routine of several characters. There are those that work there every day (public attorneys, judges, and prosecutors) and those that are merely passing through (the accused).

Soft and Hard

August 1985 •French

Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville talk about their films, while doing everyday tasks around their house.

A Fuller Life

August 2013 •English

Friends and admirers of iconoclastic film director Sam Fuller read from his memoirs in this unconventional documentary directed by Fuller's only child, Samantha.

Zidane, un destin d'exception

November 2007 •French

Born Sweet

January 2010 •English

Arsenic-laced water has poisoned a 15 year old boy from a small, rural village in Cambodia.

The Three Disappearances of Soad Hosni

July 2011 •French

This haunting and beautifully formed documentary is a meditation on the life of Egyptian screen legend Soad Hosni, who starred in eighty-two feature films between 1959 and 1991. Hosni’s mysterious death in London in 2001 sent shockwaves through the Arab world, and this is the first film which look into her life and work. Using filmic montage, director and video artist Rania Stephan reveals the diverse modes of female representation embodied in Hosni's charismatic roles, and creates an ebullient picture of the iconic actress who captivated the modern Arab imagination.

I'm My Own Dolly Parton

March 2011 •Swedish

Five women musicians are brought together by their love for singer Dolly Parton. They all have dreams for their futures, but they are also burdened by their painful pasts. During a series of tribute concerts a warm friendship develops which leads to in-depth descriptions of the women's life stories.

Mur Murs

September 1981 •French

Venturing from Venice Beach to Watts, Varda looks at the murals of LA as backdrop to and mirror of the city’s many cultures. She casts a curious eye on graffiti and photorealism, roller disco & gang violence, evangelical Christians, Hare Krishnas, artists, angels and ordinary Angelenos.

Road's End

November 2013 •Latvian

Road's End is the story of Daina who lives in Latgale in Eastern Latvia, close by the Russian border. She lives two miles from the nearest road, with no electricity or running water. The roof has collapsed. She is completely dependent upon herself in order to cope with her everyday life. Daina’s children have both emigrated, her son to Norway and her daughter to Italy. When she feels lonely, she goes to her husband's grave and sits there talking with him as if he were still alive. Road’s end is a both poetic and existential film about choices we make in life, about obstinacy, love and betrayal.

The Mask You Live In

January 2015 •English

Compared to girls, research shows that boys in the United States are more likely to be diagnosed with a behaviour disorder, prescribed stimulant medications, fail out of school, binge drink, commit a violent crime, and/or take their own lives. The Mask You Live In asks: as a society, how are we failing our boys?

The New Black

June 2013 •English

The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African-American community is grappling with the gay rights issue in light of the recent gay marriage movement and the fight over civil rights. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black community's institutional pillar-the black church and reveals the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda. The New Black takes viewers into the pews and onto the streets and provides a seat at the kitchen table as it tells the story of the historic fight to win marriage equality in Maryland and charts the evolution of this divisive issue within the black community.

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

April 2014 •English

Darwin meets Hitchcock in this documentary. Directors Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine have created a parable about the search for paradise, set in the brutal yet alluring landscape of the Galapagos Islands, which interweaves an unsolved 1930s murder mystery with stories of present day Galapagos pioneers. A gripping tale of idealistic dreams gone awry, featuring voice-over performances by Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger, and Gustaf Skarsgard.

Bitch Academy

August 2007 •Russian

A documentary on women in St. Petersburg who enroll in a program which will help them land millionaire husbands.

Maestra

March 2012 •English

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

Bound by Flesh

October 2012 •English

Conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were once the cream of the sideshow crop. Taught to sing and dance at an early age, the winsome duo ascended through the early 20th-century vaudeville circuit as a side attraction (working alongside Bob Hope and Charlie Chaplin as well as a memorable turn in the Tod Browning classic "Freaks") before a cascade of unscrupulous management and harsh mistreatment brought their careers (and lives) tumbling down. This engrossing glimpse into a bygone era is filled with fascinating interviews and rare archival footage.

The Truth Be Told

January 2007 •English

The Truth Be Told is an epic-scale documentary that follows three and half years in the life of Supinya, a media activist who was sued by the Shin Corporation for stating that the company had benefited from the policies of the administration of Thaksin Shinawatra, whose family owned the company. The documentary is snapshot of a turbulent period in Thai politics, from the Thaksin years, the anti-Thaksin backlash that arose after Thaksin sold his share in Shin to Singapore's Temasek Holdings, and the military coup that ousted Thaksin.

Space Junk 3D

January 2012 •English

50 years after launching our dreams into space, we’re left with a troubling legacy: a growing ring of orbiting debris that threatens the safety of earth’s orbits. SPACE JUNK is a visually explosive journey of discovery that weighs the solutions aimed at restoring our planet’s orbits. Experience mind-boggling collisions, both natural and man-made. Soar for the stunning depths of Meteor Crater to an unprecedented view of our increasingly crowded orbits – 22,000 miles above earth. Join us as foremost expert Don Kessler, the “Father of Space Junk,” guides us through the challenges we face in protecting them, forging a new age of space discovery.