DocuWeeks NY 2009

Fourteen-year-old Jorgis is a gifted choirboy. He has sung solos in concert halls all over the world and has touched millions of people on television. One day, his singing teacher tells him that his voice is starting to break and he has to stop singing soon. Jorgis knew it would happen at some point, but it still comes as a big shock. By losing his voice, he loses his ability to express himself and move people. He is forced to leave behind his identity as a boy singer and move towards a new life as a young man. Please note: 12 NOTES DOWN screens as part of a shorts program with ALIENS AMONG US, CROSSING MIDNIGHT and RABBIT À LA BERLIN. Tickets purchased grant admission to the entire shorts program for the date indicated on the ticket.

The war on terror has gone on for over seven years, yet all politics implemented have failed to produce significant results. John Ashcroft’s Justice Department designed a registration program for immigrants already in the US, based on their nationality, not on the targeted people’s actions. Aliens Among Us describes the lives of these people, who are targeted because they are “different” and therefore a potential danger. The drastic measures are supposed to protect us from them. But where do we draw the line? Please note: ALIENS AMONG US screens as part of a shorts program with 12 NOTES DOWN, CROSSING MIDNIGHT and RABBIT À LA BERLIN. Tickets purchased grant admission to the entire shorts program for the date indicated on the ticket.

Crossing Midnight tells the story of a remarkable community of refugees from Burma working against incredible odds to help their own. During the violent crackdown of the 1988 student uprising, Dr. Cynthia Maung and a group of fellow students fled to the border of Thailand. There, with virtually nothing in hand, they created the Mae Tao Clinic in a one-room barn. Today, in the midst of an unparalleled healthcare crisis, the clinic has grown into a community of over 500 healthcare workers, a school for refugee children and a dedicated group of cross-border backpack medics. Please note: CROSSING MIDNIGHT screens as part of a shorts program with 12 NOTES DOWN, ALIENS AMONG US and RABBIT À LA BERLIN. Tickets purchased grant admission to the entire shorts program for the date indicated on the ticket.

Floods, drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt. DIRT! The Movie--directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow-- tells the story of Earth's most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility--from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, "dirt is very much alive." DIRT! the Movie--narrated by Jaime Lee Curtis--brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world (Majora Carter, Waangari Mathai, Vandana Shiva & many more) who are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil. DIRT the Movie is a call to action. What we've destroyed, we can heal.

'Garbage Dreams' is a moving story of young men searching for ways to eke out a living for their family and facing tough choices as they try to do the right thing for the planet" --AL GORE. Filmed over four years, "Garbage Dreams" follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zaballeen, Arabic for "garbage people." Far ahead of any modern "Green" initiatives, the Zaballeen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. Face to face with an uncertain future amidst encroaching multinational corporations who seek to modernize their trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Hunting Down Memory is a true story about Øyvind Aamodt, who suddenly loses 27 years of his memory. For most people, this would be a dreadful experience, an ominous and frightening event in their life. For Øyvind, it is an adventure. He is neither traumatized nor paralyzed; he is just curious. At the age of 27, he has to start learning how the world functions. He experiences the world with the consciousness of a child, is confronted with various prejudices, and must build a new identity.

Kimjongilia follows several North Korean defectors as they tell their astonishing stories of starvation, persecution and escape from the world's worst human rights violator, the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The kimjongilia is a flower that was bred to celebrate North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's 46th birthday, and is said to represent love, peace, justice and wisdom. Children sent to prison for alleged crimes of their grandfathers; refugees caught in China and deported back to North Korea for imprisonment and torture; relentless famine: These testimonies give lie to the lofty propaganda of Kim Jong Il's regime.

For the first time in its history, a film crew has been allowed access to the field operations of the world largest medical NGO—Doctors Without Borders. Filmed in the war zones of Liberia and Congo, Living in Emergency follows four volunteer doctors as they struggle to provide emergency care in extreme conditions. Amidst the chaos, each volunteer must confront the severe challenges of the work, the tough choices and the limits of their own idealism.

Michael Campbell is one of a handful of white farmers still left in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began enforcing his controversial land seizure program, an initiative intended to reclaim white-owned land and redistribute it to poor black Zimbabweans. Since 2000, formerly thriving farms that employed thousands, now sit derelict while poverty and hunger are rife amongst the majority of the country's citizens, but 74-year-old Mike refuses to back down. Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 2008 presidential election, 'Mugabe and the White African' follows Mike and son-in-law Ben Freeth's harrowing attempt to take Mugabe to an international court for racism and violation of their human rights. Filmed over 12 months, a gripping courtroom drama unfolds, whilst all the time Mike, his family and the farm workers face the all too real threats of Mugabe's wrath. It is an unprecedented case, upon which rests not only Mike and his family's future, but also the future of millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who continue to suffer at the hands of one of the world's most infamous tyrants. 'Mugabe and the White African' is an intimate, moving and terrifying account of one man and his family's extraordinary courage in the face of overwhelming injustice and brutality.