15 titles will compete for The Best Documentary Award in this year's competition at 30th WFF.
The Authors / Autorki, dir. Janusz Mrozowski (Poland 2014), 73 mins.
A riveting documentary about female prisoners taking part in an unusual experiment. They write a play based on their own lives. The play is performed by professional actors at a regular theatre, and the authors are in the audience.
Breaking the Wave / Przełamując falę / Rompiendo la ola, dir. Annie Canavaggio (Panama 2014), 78 mins.
Santa Catalina, a village in Panama - a mecca for surfers from all over the world. A documentary about Panamanians who love surfing but have to live their lives as well.
Crossroads / Rozdroże / Perekrestok, dir. Anastasiya Miroshnichenko (Belarus, Sweden 2014), 65 mins.
Valery Liashkevich is a homeless artist who for over twenty years has painted pictures in the streets of the town of Gomel in Belarus. The documentary was made with private money to support this extremely talented artist.
The Culture High / Kultura na haju, dir. Brett Harvey (Canada, UK, USA 2014), 120 mins.
Is marijuana an addictive drug or a miraculous medicine? Will individual citizens, but also society and the government, gain or lose from legalization? The filmmakers skilfully put together questions and answers but make no suggestion as to which side to choose.
Dancing Before The Enemy: How a teenage boy fooled the Nazis and lived / Mój Tata Gene Gutowski, dir. Adam Bardach (USA 2014), 65 mins.
The story of the extraordinary life of film producer Gene Gutowski, following him from his home town of Lwów, through the Soviet Union, occupied Poland, all the way to Hollywood. Skilfully balancing between pathos and humour, Gutowski's story is told by his son, filmmaker Adam Bardach.
David & Me / David i ja, dir. Ray Klonsky, Marc Lamy (Canada 2014), 69 mins.
David McCallum was a 16-year-old kid when he went to prison for a murder he didn't commit. He has spent 29 years behind bars. Director Ray Klonsky has spent the last 10 years conducting a private investigation to exonerate him. A documentary about determination and commitment as well as the friendship that developed between David and Ray over the years.
The Forest / Las / Padurea/Suma, dir. Siniša Dragin (Romania, Serbia 2014), 73 mins.
A light, fun documentary telling a story from the 1960s when young art critic Radu Bogdan decided to write a monograph on the great painter Ion Andreescu. He wanted to photograph his famous painting - a gift from the Romanian authorities to Josip Broz Tito, president of Yugoslavia. That was just the beginning?
Gottland, various directors (Czech Republic, Poland 2014), 100 mins.
Five short films inspired by stories from the bestselling book 'Gottland' by Polish journalist Mariusz Szczygieł. The directors - students of Prague's FAMU film school - use surprising formal means to show an unconventional take on the history of the Czechs and their country.
I, Kamikaze / Ja, kamikadze / Parole de Kamikaze, dir. Masa Sawada (France 2014), 75 mins.
'I, Kamikaze' is a stunning personal testimony of a larger-than-life tale. Hayashi Fujio, a 90-year-old veteran, narrates his memories from World War II, when he volunteered for the very first kamikaze operation planned by the Japanese Imperial Army. 'I, Kamikaze' won a film debut special mention at the Locarno festival in 2014.
Super Local Hero, dir. Toshinori Tanaka (Japan 2014), 91 mins.
Katsuhiko Nobue owns a CD shop but is seldom there. Perhaps he is driving his dilapidated motorbike to arrange food or employment for someone, organize a holiday for kids, get together some musicians, water the town's plants or take food to stray cats? The people of Onomichi think he is a HERO.
TOTART / TOTART czyli odzyskiwanie rozumu, dir. Bartosz Paduch (Poland 2014), 76 mins.
A documentary about Totart, an artistic formation from Gdańsk whose iconoclastic and mocking appearances shook up the grim People's Poland reality of the 1980s. It is also a story about the phenomenon of the group's spiritual leader and ideologue Zbigniew Sajnóg and his surprising accession to the Niebo cult.
Toto And His Sisters / Toto i jego siostry / Toto si surorile lui, dir. Alexander Nanau (Romania 2014), 93 mins.
Totonel is 10 and a Roma. With his two older sisters he lives in a ghetto on the poor outskirts of Bucharest. His mother has been in prison for five years for dealing drugs. The boy has changed greatly in that time...
Traces In The Snow / Ślady na śniegu. Syberyjski punk, dir. Vladimir Kozlov (Russia 2014), 63 mins.
The world's first documentary about Siberia's punk rock scene in the 1980s. It was a phenomenon of those times that this music existed thousands of miles away from the movement's epicentres in New York and London.
Uncle Tony, Three Fools, and the Secret Service / Wujek Tony, trzej głupcy i służba bezpieczeństwa, dir. mins.a Mileva, Vesela Kazakova (UK, Bulgaria 2014), 86 mins.
The story of a talented duo of caricaturists who defined trends in communist Bulgaria's animated cinema in the 1970s. One of them lived in luxury, the other was pushed to the margins. Why? This controversial documentary was made in an atmosphere of scandal in a country that is the only ex-member of the Eastern Bloc that still hasn't conducted a political vetting process.
When under Fire - Shoot Back! / Fotografowie w ogniu walki, dir. Marc Wiese (Germany 2014), 70 mins.
A documentary about a great friendship, unheard-of success and courage bordering on recklessness. The heroes are Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva - photographers from South Africa, members of the legendary Bang Bang Club who revealed the grim reality of apartheid to the world in the 1990s.
Contact: Agnieszka Krawczyk, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Warsaw Film Foundation /
30th Warsaw Film Festival, October 10-19, 2014
10th CentEast Market Warsaw, October 17-19, 2014
mailing address: WFF, P.O.Box 816, PL-00-950 Warsaw 1, Poland
www.wff.pl/en/
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