All Films

La hija de O'higgins

2001 • 56 min

A family history transmitted through the generations culminates with the discovery of the illegitimate daughter of one of the greatest heroes of Chilean independence, Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme. Through the story of Petronila Riquelme, various previously unknown aspects of O'Higgins' life are revealed and a search begins in Chile and Peru for the remaining traces of this story; A journey that involves the filmmaker, since it is the story of her family: Petronila is her great-great-grandmother.

Animal Transgenics: A New Breed of Science

2001 • 47 min • United States of America

How will future animals potentially be genetically modified to grow larger and stronger? This doc investigates the consequences to their health.

Nice Jam

2001 • 2 min • United Kingdom

Bored and life getting you down? Nice Jam goes to show how something as simple as jam and toast can break the boredom of a dull and dismal day.

Two in One

2001 • 20 min

Two old men sharing a room in a nursery home, try to get along.

Jan T Zen oder Die Kunst als Zahnarzt pleite zu gehen

2001 • 12 min

Dentist Jantzen went bankrupt. The few selected objects in his apartment are charged with cryptic meaning. The protagonist leads through his apartment, a self-staging in the ritual of loneliness.

Senhorinha

2001 • 38 min

Margarida Senhorinha, aged 69, is illiterate but records poems, songs and memories of her birthdays on a tape recorder. She’s spent forty years in her house with its garden amidst the blocks of flats of an ever expanding Cacém. Now, her entire life depends on her landlord. She’s at risk of lose her house, perhaps to make way for yet another tower block. A living memory of rural Portugal that has come face to face with urban Cacém, Margarida Senhorinha asks simply: “and now where do I go?”

The Great Sneezer

2001 • 11 min

A magical mummy in the hands of gangsters! Two crazy gangsters steal the mummy of the Great Sneeze from the museum, which once sneezed diamonds for the Egyptians. After various escapades, they manage to revive it, but the magic doesn't work as they imagined. The Great Sneeze mustn't catch too cold! A classic animated - puppet film by Nora Držiak. It combines elements of adventure, gangster, disaster film, thriller and fairy tale with exaggeration.

Bang Nhau... Égaux

2001 • 4 min • France

Based on the memory of a war, that of Vietnam, the images race away, the senses become confused, the memories explode. Why would some people be stronger and more intelligent than others on principle?

Candombe

2001 • 50 min • Argentina

Candombe reflects the lifestyle of an Afro-Uruguayan culture residing in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. This culture, originating from African slaves brought to the shores of the Río de la Plata, lives in an environment of constant music and dance. Its music is based on drum-beat percussion, and its dance is performed by a series of traditional characters: "La Mama Vieja," "El Escobero," "El Gramillero," and "Las Bailarinas."

Generación Golpe

2001 • 59 min • Argentina

Eight young people share their experiences as children of people directly involved in or affected by the dictatorship. Their personal memories and diverse experiences intertwine with Argentine history.

The Keeners

2001 • 15 min • Brazil, France

Three old ladies, Margot, Greta and Isla, sing in burials for money. One day, a corpse disappears, and they become the primary suspects.

An Evergreen Island

2001 • 44 min • Australia, Papua New Guinea

In 1989, the landowners of Central Bougainville closed one of the world's largest copper mines that was destroying their land. It remains closed to this day. In response, a blockade was imposed around the island. From scratch, the Bougainvilleans built their own schools, they revived their traditional bush medicines, they used solar and hydro power to generate electricity, but the most fascinating invention was the use of fermented coconut oil as a substitute for fuel. "An Evergreen Island" is a story of courage, survival and persistence - of inventiveness, imagination and creativity on a little-known Pacific island.

The Toys That Rescued Christmas

2001 • 24 min • United States of America

It's the night before Christmas... and all the presents have mysteriously disappeared from beneath the tree. Smuckey the (wisecracking) sock monkey, Daytona the race car and and Track the train investigate! Can the toys solve the mystery of the missing presents before Christmas morning?

James Dean: Born Cool

2001 • 56 min

James Dean: Born Cool tells the story of James Dean's rise from small town boy to immortal icon as told by Jimmy's closest family and friends from the perspective of his hometown of Fairmount, Indiana. Made with the full cooperation of the Dean Estate, Born Cool includes unprecedented access to hundreds of rare and never before seen photos and home movies, plus exclusive interviews with those who knew Jimmy best.

Rummaging for Pasts

2001 • 27 min • India

Rummaging for Pasts is an experimental juxtaposition of two cinematic documents: the video diary of an international archaeological excavation and a collection of assorted eight millimeter found footage of Indian weddings.

Moving House

2001 • 22 min • Singapore

The Chew family is one of 55,000 Singapore families forced to relocate the remains of their relatives to a columbarium as the gravesite is needed for urban redevelopment. The picnic mood of the family outing to move the remains belies the sadness and confusion everyone feels.

The Perth Production of a Talk Show Opera

2001 • 27 min • Australia

This is a documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and directed by Kevin Firkins. This documentary coincided with the production of the talk show opera Dennis Cleveland at the Octagon Theatre as part of the 2001 Perth International Arts Festival.

A Bridge of Books

2001 • 13 min • United States of America

In 1939, Yiddish was the spoken language of three-quarters of the world's Jews. But when leading Jewish scholars convened in 1980, they estimated that only 70,000 Yiddish books remained in the world. This engaging, often funny documentary film chronicles the adventures of an enterprising 23-year-old named Aaron Lansky, who rallied together an international network of volunteers and set out to rescue the world's Yiddish books. Twenty years later, the National Yiddish Book Center has collected 1.5 million Yiddish books and helped save a rich diverse, and surprisingly modern literature from oblivion. With rare archival images, and a lyrical portrayal of the National Yiddish Book Center's warehouse and cultural complex, A Bridge Of Books celebrates a pursuit that has become a powerful vehicle for the transmission of history, culture and identity across several generations.

Blonde Poison: The Making of 'Basic Instinct'

2001 • 30 min

A look behind the scenes at one of the more controversial thillers of the 90's, and the one that made Sharon Stone a top-name star. Includes interviews with Stone and footage of some of the hard work that went into making the movie, as well as some discussion of the problems the makers had to deal with, including protests from groups who wanted the film changed or simply abandoned.

Spit Farther!

2001 • 12 min • United States of America

For the last half century, the little town of Luling, Texas has held an annual Watermelon Thump Festival – and its own world championship watermelon seed spitting competition. This short documentary is about both the contest and the chief seed spitting judge, Phil, an underemployed, over-stimulated, former expatriate, who’s come home after years abroad in Europe.

B2

2001 • 11 min • Brazil

A short film made with unused footage from The Red Light Bandit and Carnaval na Lama.

About Special Effects

2001 • 40 min • Italy

This film deals with the theme of the heritage left to the underground cinema by the historical avant-garde.

Birds

2001 • 8 min • United States of America

The film follows five dancers on an all-white, moving set. At first they wear highly stylised, predominantly white costumes before switching to all-white leotards and coloured cellophane headdresses with matching extensions on each of their fingers. The dancers form complex compositions comparable to abstract paintings and hold their poses in tableaux. At other points they explore parts of the moving scenography.

Shake Dance: The Movie

2001 • 60 min

For years, a great deal of Southern hip-hop and dance music has been all about shakin' the booty, so it's no surprise that at gentlemen's clubs in the Deep South, one of the featured attractions has become the "shake dance," in which women show off how they can shake their bodies from the waist down in time to the music -- no easy task when the beats are pumping at 140 bpm. Shake Dance is a documentary that takes viewers to a number of strip clubs in the Atlanta area, where some of the nation's best shake dancers show off their moves and talk about their jobs; some regard what they do as an art form and a means of personal expression, while others just look at dancing as a fast way to make a buck. Shake Dance features music from a handful of the South's leading dance music acts, including 95 South, Quad City Family, and 69 Boyz.