Without Borders 2008

FOOTBALL UNDER COVER by David Assman and Ayat Najafi 2008, Germany, doc. 86’ Iran has dedicated women playing soccer, but they lack a team to play against. The Iranian authorities do not promote female soccer. When a German soccer player learns about this predicament she sets something in motion: her team will travel to Teheran and play against the women who are required to practice with their headscarf on.

ANOTHER ROAD HOME by Danae Elon 2004, USA, doc. 79' The New Yorker filmmaker Danae Elon is reexamining her upbringing in Jerusalem. She is looking for Musa, a Palestinian man, whom her parents had hired to be her caregiver for nearly twenty years. Musa said  “From the milk we drank together, something of my blood, my life is in you.”

KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEGINNING by Paul Smaczny 2005, Germany, doc. 114' Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim were the founders of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The orchestra is made up of students from Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine. Their countries are at war, but they perform Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven in Berlin, Seville and Ramallah together. Daniel Barenboim concludes: “We either kill each other or share what there is to share.“

ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF by Rainer Werner Fassbinder 1973, Germany, 93' Emmi, a 60-year-old widowed cleaning woman meets Ali, a guest worker in his late thirties and they get married. What follows is a bitter and violent reaction from the outside world against this relationship. Fipresci and Ocic awards at Cannes in 1974, and in Chicago and Germany (actress Brigitte Mira).

BEYOND BELIEF by Beth Murphy 2007, USA, doc. 92' Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston. They lost their husbands on September 11. In the light of their tragedy these two women grow beyond anger and self-pity and start fund raising for war widows in Afghanistan. An extraordinary journey develops rebuilding themselves and the lives of women half a world away.

WAR DANCE by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix 2007, USA, doc. 105' For the past 20 years, Northern Uganda has been at war, and the country’s children have been the greatest victims of that conflict. Amidst the grief and violence, children’s voices sing strong. The film follows the efforts of the children in the refugee camps to compete in a prestigious national music competition. Nominated  for Oscar best documentary 2008.

BLACK PIG WHITE PIG by Zhang Gong 2005, Rep. Popolare cinese, animaz., 4’50” Every revolution is ugly, violent and bloody. When the revolutionists become the establishment they face the crises of being overturned again. There is something utterly ridiculous about this inevitable cycle.

I MET THE WALRUS by Josh Raskin 2007, Canada, animaz. 5’ This exquisitely animated film documents an interview of John Lennon by Jerry Levitan in 1969. Levitan, then 14 years, wiggles himself into John Lennon’s Hotel room to get an interview. Lennon’s words about peace, war and love still speak to us. Nominated for Oscar best  short 2008.

11:59 by Johan Kramer 2004, Holland, 9’30” For eleven minutes and 59 seconds we are invited into the life of a young stranger.

EUROPEAN SHOWERBATH by Peter Greenaway 2004, Gran Bretagna, 5’ This exquisitely animated film documents an interview of John Lennon by Jerry Levitan in 1969. Levitan, then 14 years, wiggles himself into John Lennon’s Hotel room to get an interview. Lennon’s words about peace, war and love still speak to us. Nominated for Oscar best  short 2008.

ONE PEOPLE ONE PLANET by David Hoffman 2004,USA, 18’ When Astronaut Rusty Schweickart went outside of Apollo 9 to repair the capsule he had a life changing experience. Years later, he reflected on that experience with a most amazing "prayer" for the earth about all that he saw from space.

THE BIRD by Zhang Gong 2004, Rep. Popolare cinese, animated, 15' This is a magical but skeptical poem on love and liberty. People catch and feed a bird because they love and adore it, but the bird is deprived of its freedom.

DARFUR NOW by Ted Braun 2007, USA, doc. 98’ This documentary profiles people who are trying to stop the violence in Darfur, for example: a Darfurian woman who becomes a rebel, a passionate UCLA graduate, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the actor Don Cheadle (also producer of the movie) and a U.N. relief worker. With the participation of George Clooney.

STRANGERS by Erez Tadmor e Guy Nattiv 2007, Israel, 85’ A young Israeli guy and a young Palestinian woman meet in Berlin during the soccer World Cup. A passionate and complex love affair develops, amidst the carefree atmosphere of the event and the political reality as the second Lebanese war erupts. The story was shot and developed in real time. In competition at Sundance 2008.