All Films

Sliding Liberia

2008 • 48 min

Sliding Liberia follows four young surfers to Liberia in search of more than perfect waves. Risking everything to explore the West African country devastated by decades of war, they record the stories of people they meet - people like Alfred, who became Liberia's first surfer after finding a bodyboard while fleeing from rebels. Besides rediscovering a break that could be the best-kept secret in the surfing world, they find something more important - a way to travel responsibly in the 21st century.

The Fine Line

2008 • 45 min

In The Fine Line , the world's best skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers join leading avalanche professionals to present a new movement in avalanche education. This project, which features one main film and four training films, combines the thrill of winter action sports with important information about avalanche safety.

WEC Greatest Knockouts

2008 • 60 min • United States of America

The special presentation will feature the top knockouts to date in the WEC organization's history. Also featured in the hour is “The All American” Brian Stann’s knockout over Doug Marshall in March 2008, in which Stann claimed the light heavyweight title and two standouts from 2007 including Brock Larson’s defeat of Kevin Knabjian and Brian Bowles knockout of Marcos Galvao.

People's Republic of Capitalism

2008 • 60 min • United States of America

In this in-depth four-part documentary, Ted Koppel examines China's new status as an economic superpower and its complex relationship with the United States. He focuses on Chongqing–a city in Sichuan Province with a burgeoning population and big plans for the future. While peasants in outlying areas eke out a meager living, the rising middle class revels in new riches, challenging traditional ideas about religion, sexuality, and consumerism. All this reverberates here in America, where companies scramble for cheap labor, workers find jobs shipped overseas, and shoppers snap up Chinese-made goods at big box retailers.

Speechless

2008 • 13 min

Medical 3D photographs of human vulvae are interwoven with surfaces and textures in natural and human-made environments.

We Who Stayed Behind

2008 • 25 min

10-year-old Adam is one of few kids left behind, after all the grown-ups have been overwhelmed by fear and hopelessness and left the city. Adam tries to make sense of it all along with his friend Ida, but soon she too is struck by the same symptom of disillusion: her blood turns gray. Determined to put a stop to this madness and bring Ida back to life, Adam leads the children in their struggle to make the city a place worth living in once again.

Guge: The Lost Kingdom of Tibet

2008 • 52 min

American archaeologist John Bellezza joins Tibetan historian Tsering Gyalpo in telling the story of how the Guge Kingdom came to flourish and then collapse. Using reenactments, the story features the riches and opulence of the Royal Family, and the collapse from the King's brother encouraging the Ladakhis to attack in the early 1600s.

Major Organ and the Adding Machine

2008 • 26 min

A disgruntled inter-dimensional pastry chef sends two children on a mysterious quest. Beards ensue.

Forgotten Ellis Island

2008 • 55 min

Visit the abandoned immigrant hospital on Ellis Island. During the great wave of immigration, 22 medical buildings sprawled across two islands adjacent to Ellis Island, the largest port of entry to the United States. Massive and modern, the hospital was America's first line of defense against contagious, often virulent, disease. In the era before antibiotics, tens of thousands of immigrant patients were separated from family, detained in the hospital and healed from illness before becoming citizens. FORGOTTEN ELLIS ISLAND is a powerful reminder of the best -- and worst -- of America's dealings with its new citizens-to-be. Elliott Gould narrates.

Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story

2008 • 54 min • Australia

Controversial South African political satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys allows writer/director Julian Shaw into his previously off-limits inner world.

Torchlighters: The Richard Wurmbrand Story

2008 • 30 min

Risking his liberty and his life, courageous Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand refuses to conform and pledge his allegiance to the communists in power in this children's animated program based on true events. After the authorities throw him in prison, Wurmbrand must draw on his deepest resources to survive and maintain his faith. A documentary about Wurmbrand and his wife is included and features interviews with their son, Mihai.

2019: A Future Imagined

2008 • 8 min

Visual Futurist Syd Mead ("Blade Runner," "Aliens," "Tron") reflects upon the nature of creativity and how it drives the future. Photographed in stunning High Definition, this featurette provides insight into the fascinating mind of one of the most influential artists of modern cinema.

Capsicum

2008 • 11 min

Ruminations about the color red.

Optical Vacuum

2008 • 55 min

Optical Vacuum, 2008, 55 min., Beta SP, Voice & Diary: Stephen Mathewson, Music: Stefan Németh

Epitaph

2008 • 10 min

Meditations on human destruction composed at land's end.

The Writer

2008 • 3 min • United Kingdom

Science Fiction writer Lucas Reed muses on muses.

The Trainee

2008 • 16 min • Finland

Artist Pilvi Takala goes undercover at a marketing department. Her intention was to do nothing until she was fired; hidden cameras catch the bewilderment with which her co-workers react to this.

Easter Morning

2008 • 10 min

Departing from an inimitable film repertoire of tour-de-force editing technique, visual comedy, and apocalyptic themes, avant-garde master Bruce Conner envisioned EASTER MORNING (2008)—a metaphysical quest for renewal beyond the natural and ephemeral worlds—to be his last finished masterpiece.

Tomorrow Yeaaaaah!

2008 • 13 min • Germany

The study stylizes the highly concentrated training of a basketball team and the start of the big game the next day. Bodies, movements and sounds are fragmented in unusual excerpts, alienated by the reduction to black and white and reassembled in an original and fast-paced montage.

Donner la parole

2008 • 33 min • France

Documentary Short

Meaning of Life

2008 • 11 min • Finland

Meaning of life is a poetic short film about seeking happiness. The film gives us insight as to what happiness and good life mean for the habitants of Queens, New York City. Do they share the idea of “American Dream” and is it possible for everyone to achieve this? Meaning of life is filmed on black-and-white film, inspired by the “Man With a Movie Camera”.

Ex-E.T.

2008 • 8 min • France

A little child in a far-away planet ruled by synchronism and conformity starts showing antisocial behavior to the embarrassment of his parents, who take him to the doctors to be fixed.

The Naked Night

2008 • 31 min • France

In a room under the roofs of Paris, a twenty year old boy receives a man he met through the Internet. After they have sex, a summer storm breaks and the boy asks the man to stay until it stops raining.

Fully Awake: Black Mountain College

2008 • 60 min

Documentary about the history and ideas of Black Mountain College.