Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary

Filmmakers have been turning their cameras on the real world since the time of the Lumière Brothers and the documentary genre has sparked impassioned creative debate ever since.

What comes into play when filmmakers set out to represent reality? What ethical concerns arise when portraying real people on screen? How does music condition our emotional response to film? From cinema-vérité pioneers Albert Maysles, Joan Churchill and Michel Brault to maverick moviemakers like Errol Morris and Nick Broomfield, some of the doc world’s brightest lights reflect upon the unique power of the genre and provide an in-depth look at non-fiction filmmaking and the steps to making a documentary.

Through a combination of interviews and clips, these masters of the craft reflect upon the documentary as a form of storytelling and offer insight into their approach to capturing the 'real'.
Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada

In Prison My Whole Life

Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black Panther and radical journalist, was arrested for the murder of a police officer in Philadelphia in 1981. He claimed he was innocent but was sentenced to death and has been awaiting execution ever since. Over the years, he has attracted massive international support from organizations such as Amnesty International and world leaders like Nelson Mandela amongst others. Mumia has become the most famous and controversial death row inmate in the United States of America. Through his writings and web and radio broadcasts from Death Row, he has become known to many as “the Voice of the Voiceless”.

Never-seen-before footage and brand new evidence create a prevailing case for reasonable doubt while exploring the socio-political climate of America – past and present. Featuring Angela Davis, Mos Def, Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Snoop Dogg, Steve Earle and Amy Goodman.
Courtesy of the Director

Awards

• Geneva Film Festival on Human Rights 2008- Best Film
• Paris Festival for Human Rights- Student Award and Planet Prize
• Black International Film Festival, Berlin- Winner Best Film on matter relating to black experience/marginalized people

Keep the Faith Baby (drama)
African Premiere
United States, 2002, 107min
Director: Doug Mchenry

In the world of wartime American politics, there was never going to be room for a larger than life congressman with an unconventional style. Especially when his outspoken views and gutsy determination would spearhead a movement that aimed to make life better for African-Americans everywhere.

Adam Clayton Powell (Harry Lennix, The Matrix Reloaded) started out as a preacher from Harlem in the early 1940s. His passion for justice and flair for uniting the community soon led to an impressive two-decade career which saw him shake up American Congress and target the deep-rooted racism that ran through the establishment. Powell was naturally charming and a notorious ladies man. His conquests even included famous diva pianist Hazel Scott (Vanessa Williams, "Shaft").

This amazing story is told through the eyes of a young journalist who visits the retired Powell in his fishing-village retreat, only to find that the years did little to dull the winning charisma and charm of a true twentieth century icon.
Courtesy of Paramount Television and the National Film and Video Foundation

Slaves

Conversations with two freed children from southern Sudan, who were kidnapped by a government-supported militia and forced into slavery, were recorded on audio in a documentary fashion.

The conversations took place in 2003, when the 20-year-long civil war in southern Sudan was drawing to a close.

The film is an animated interpretation of the interviews and allows for a poetic visual amplification of the haunting stories of children who like thousands of others were taken into slavery by Sudanese militia.
Courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute

Awards

• IDFA 2008- Silver Cub Award Best Short Documentary
• Berlinale 2009- Special Mention, Generation 14 plus
• Cinequest, San José 2009-Best Short Animation
• Tempo Documentary Festival 2009- STHLMDOC Award

The Father Inside
World Premiere
South Africa, 2009, 48min, English Subtitles
Director: Rehad Desai and Arya Lalloo
(Screens with A Place in the City)

Magadien Wentzel was first arrested in the mid seventies for taking part in a student protest against apartheid. This event was to change the course of his life. The youngster from Mannenberg in the Cape Flats decided to join the notorious prison gang “The Number”. He believed the gang were freedom fighters on the “inside”.

He spent most of his life in Western Cape prisons. In the short periods of freedom between his sentences he fathered three children. When back in jail he was a leader of the 28 gang, a powerful man who commanded fear.

But destiny and history intervened again when prison reform programmes were introduced into South African prisons after Apartheid ended and Magadien became determined to rehabilitate. When he was finally released in 2003, he faced the arduous task of proving his reform to his three children, his community and himself.
Courtesy of the Director

Wole Soyinka: Child of the Forest

One of Africa’s greats Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honoured.

The film profiles his life through his work and pivotal stages in his development. Filmmaker Akin Omotoso shapes a biography of the African great through interviews with Soyinka’s friends, writers influenced and inspired by his work and life, and interviews with the man himself. Striking stylised recreations describe major events in the artist’s life such as his daring armed takeover of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio in 1965 and his 22 month imprisonment in 1967.
Courtesy of the Director