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(Germany, 85 min)
Sometimes, jail is the only place you can be free.… In Russia, 15-year-olds convicted of criminal acts get sent to adult prisons; for anyone younger it's reform school. Alone in Four Walls take… More > |
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(New Zealand, Fiji, 76 min)
… "I'm always drawn to incidents that if unpacked, reveal a lot about a moment and a culture, and I felt this was one of them." - filmmaker Annie Goldson.… … They called him the Whi… More > |
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(New Zealand, 95 min)
"If Madonna and Angelina Jolie can do it, why can't performance artist Vanessa Beecroft adopt an exotic Third World baby?" - Variety… Vanessa Beecroft's work has always been provocative. Her nu… More > |
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(Slovakia, 77 min)
Filmed in the half-lit homes of its four participants, Blind Loves looks at the anxieties of falling in love when you can't see.… Imagine being unable to clink a celebratory glass of champagne,… More > |
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(USA, 170 min)
"I'm in the Marlon Brando business." - Marlon Brando… This thorough retrospective proceeds chronologically through this great American performer's life - from his early obsession with his mothe… More > |
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(UK, 93 min)
"I'm lazy, I turn up late... personal hygiene was another issue that's come up." - filmmaker Chris Waitt… When unemployed man-child Chris Waitt is dumped by Alice - the most recent in a long li… More > |
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(USA, 115 min)
"Sometimes I think people expect me to walk in with fangs and a cape, I think they expect me to be some kind of raving lunatic." - George A. Romero… One of the most important voices of independ… More > |
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(UK, 76 min)
A memorial, homage and exploration of the late and great Derek Jarman, maverick of the British film scene.… Breaking down barriers in Thatcher's conformist England with his predominantly queer,… More > |
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(Israel, 80 min)
A journey to the recesses of photographed memory in Chris Marker's impressionistic film, Description of a Struggle, which won the Golden Bear at the 1961 Berlin Festival.… In his 1960 film Mark… More > |
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(Germany, Switzerland, 90 min)
"Wherever we go it has beaten us; wherever we turn, it follows us. We're surrounded by it, it gets inside us, we shed it... it nestles right into the despair of its own existence" - filmmaker Hartmut… More > |
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(USA, 99 min)
“Should render contrite all who say there is nothing left for movies to show us that we haven’t seen before.” – Variety… One thousand men and women live together in unbe… More > |
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(UK, 94 min)
“This is one extraordinary documentary, approaching hugely emotive subject matter with nimble delicacy and, it has to be said, steely reserve.” – Time Out … What is it like to… More > |
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(Australia, 64 min)
Julian Temple (The Filth and the Fury) collaborated with composer Johnathan Mills and poet Dorothy Porter to create this operatic portrait of Sydney icon Arthur Stace, an ex-alcoholic who spent 40 ye… More > |
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(Poland, 68 min)
“The slow camera work, thoughtful shots and editing, all wrapped in the empathic approach, result in an unforgettable experience.” – International Film Festival Rotterdam… You… More > |
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(Portugal, Spain, 93 min)
Encounter the music from Portugal that is conquering the world.… Fado, the Portugese national song of passion, sorrow and remembrance born from the slums of 19th-century Lisbon, is the subject … More > |
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(Israel, 87 min)
“Looking into the mirror can be a very frightening and frustrating experience, it is a constant love-hate relationship.” – filmmaker Yoav Shamir … Drawing on his own experienc… More > |
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(Australia, 119 min)
“I’ve been called a minimalist composer for more than 30 years, and while I’ve never really agreed with the description, I’ve gotten used to it.” – Philip Glass… More > |
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(USA, 118 min)
“Much like Thompson at his best, this film will make you want to yell in frustration at America’s continuing parade of liars, pimps and thieves.” – San Francisco International… More > |
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(France, 54 min)
No one could have envisaged that a hippie musical about a crazy-haired gang of teens, singing for peace and love, and shedding their clothes, would have such a profound effect on America. More than j… More > |
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(UK, 100 min)
“The school seemed to be a metaphor for what’s wrong with boys and young men in society. I’m sure that’s why the impact of going to that school was so strong for me.” &n… More > |
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(USA, 69 min)
“I might ask for a fingernail or a toenail or a lock of hair or a scab or skin from a blister or something, I could ask for that.” … Propelled to number 1 on the Billboard charts in… More > |
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(France, 118 min)
“We have to have this debate, because when we do, we win the argument.” – filmmaker Daniel Leconte … Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists’ was the title on the front … More > |
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(Germany, 84 min)
1971. The hippie counter-culture movement is in full swing. And notorious German actor Klaus Kinski stands on the stage of Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle, performing a monologue while chaos reigns a… More > |
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(France, 89 min)
“Your past is exploding in your face."Filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin (whose film A Christmas Tale is also showing at MIFF this year) delves deep into his family’s history in L’Aim&eacu… More > |
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(USA, 75 min)
“What’s the point of having a First Amendment if you’re not offensive?” – Larry Flynt… Media magnate, free-speech advocate, hustler, raconteur, pornographer and co… More > |
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(UK, 90 min)
“‘I have the mind of a criminal.’ That was the first thing Philippe Petit told me when I met him. He then went on to show me how he could kill a man with a copy of People magazine.&… More > |
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(Bulgaria, 100 min)
“Alternately delightful and disturbing, The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories features characters who would do Christopher Guest proud.” – Variety… On the banks of the swolle… More > |
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(USA, 80 min)
Long before a key is ready to be touched, every Steinway concert grand is subjected to the high art of old-school craftsmanship.… From the factory floor in Queens to Steinway Hall in Manhattan,… More > |
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(UK, 72 min)
“Here was my whole world – home, school, movies and God.”A love song and eulogy to the city of Liverpool, Of Time and the City is director Terence Davies’s (Distant Voices, St… More > |
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(USA, 77 min)
“In this vision of the South, separate but equal is not only alive and well, it is the dominant mode of interaction.” – Hollywood Reporter… Founded in 1703, the Mardi Gras in … More > |
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(France, 90 min)
“While Panh’s subjects don’t shy away from discussing the sexual details of their work, the emphasis isn’t on the sensational but on women whose lives have been ground into du… More > |
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(USA, 95 min)
“This is one of the craziest dances in the world.”Forgotten by the mainstream and written off as an embarrassing 80s fad, break dancing had a long climb back to being accepted by the mass… More > |
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(New Zealand, 102 min)
Some secrets are kept forever…In the beautiful yet brutal terrain of New Zealand’s Urewera Ranges, elderly Maori tribeswoman Puhi has lived through tragedies so powerful that some, inclu… More > |
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(Germany, 121 min)
“With their liveliness, [the filmmakers] hide nothing from the camera – they talk over one another, they speak their mind… They say what they really think and that’s what mak… More > |
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(USA, 100 min)
“It really is an amazing story, and [filmmaker Marina] Zenovich does it justice.” – Hollywood ReporterMany people know filmmaker Roman Polanski left the USA 30 years ago following a… More > |
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(USA, 87 min)
The story of a couple once on the precipice of fame. Sort of.… Trading as the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder, husband and wife Michael and Claire Sardina once more or less sh… More > |
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(Israel, 62 min)
“I realised that the first Holocaust pictures I saw, as one who grew up here [in Israel], were of naked women.” – filmmaker Ari LibskerPocketbooks called ‘Stalags’ &ndas… More > |
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(France, 138 min)
“I’d even defend Bush… provided he pleaded guilty.” – Jacques VergèsDefender of the unrighteous and downright monstrous, French lawyer Jacques Vergès pres… More > |
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(UK, 110 min)
New Age shamanism. Fire walking. Tantric sex. An Australian rugby coach.… Every year Angsbacka, an idyllic lakeside forest in the north of Sweden, becomes a gathering point for people seeking s… More > |
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(Israel, 59 min)
“Who wants to deal with the evil within himself?” – former Israeli army medic Meytal Sandler… With work that included scrubbing the corpses of detainees to hide evidence of ab… More > |
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(Germany, 108 min)
“There are as many different kinds of people in this orchestra as you can imagine. And each one of them is looking for something that fits. We are on a quest for harmony.” – princip… More > |
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(USA, 96 min)
“He was probably the best writer of that time.” – Kirk Douglas… Blacklisted during the 40s and 50s, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was among the first victims of the anti-Communis… More > |
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(USA, 93 min)
“If I’ve learned anything from big budget action movies it’s that complicated global problems are best solved by one lonely guy.” – filmmaker Morgan SpurlockHaving lost … More > |
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(Austria, Germany, 84 min)
“I like relationships and I like flesh.” – Kathy Acker… Boldly exploring the extremities of an extreme woman, Who’s Afraid of Kathy Acker? chronicles one of America&rsq… More > |
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(Canada, 90 min)
“I see a lot of me in the horses. Taken out of the chaos, brought here, taken to a great place.” – inmate Anthony Edwards… Each year at the base of the Colorado Rocky Mountain… More > |
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(UK, 104 min)
“Each of our pictures is a kind of visual love letter from us to the viewer, and it’s the space between the viewer and the picture which makes art.” – George ProuschJulian Col… More > |
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(Denmark, 74 min)
“Write about what you know. More writers fail because they try to write about things they don’t know than for any other reason.” – William S. Burroughs… Filmmakers Lars … More > |
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(Japan, China, 123 min)
“We are committed to rebuilding a proud Japan, where the prime minister can openly worship at Yasukuni.” – Japanese politican… A celebrated but beleaguered documentary, Y… More > |
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(UK, 107 min)
What could be more punk than a bunch of old folk ripping into The Ramones’ ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’?In the hands of a senior citizens choir with an average age of 81, The Clash’s … More > |
This selection of documentaries represents one of the strongest selections in years. From the outright political and controversial Terrors Advocate, Yasakuni and It’s Hard Being Loved by Jerks, through the heart warmers Song Sung Blue and Young@Heart, into the realms of artistic experience with Jesus Christ Saviour and Who’s Afraid of Kathy Acker?
