Sundance 2012 (1/19-1/29/2012) World Cinema Documentary Films

Sundance has announced the films to be shown in 2012.

World Cinema Documentary

• 1/2 Revolution • (Denmark/Egypt) Two filmmakers in an apartment near the site of Egypt’s revolution capture the scenes the media didn’t see — and are arrested by the secret police. Direted by Omar Shargawi and Karim El Hakim.
• 5 Broken Cameras • (Palestine/Israel/France) A Palestinian journalist chronicles his village’s resistance to The Fence, the separation barrier being erected on his land, and sees his son’s view of the world. Written and directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi.
• The Ambassador • (Denmark) Danish TV host Mads Brügger, who snuck into North Korea with a fake comedy troupe for “The Red Chapel” (Sundance 2010), does one better: He buys himself a diplomatic title and starts doing business in the Central African Republic.
• Big Boys Gone Bananas!* • (Sweden) Director Fredrik Gertten chronicles what happened when his 2009 documentary, “Bananas!*,” was effectively silenced by a campaign of legal action, intimidation and media spin by the Dole Food Company. (Let’s see if it happens again.)
• China Heavyweight • (Canada/China) Rural Chinese students are recruited to become Western-style boxers, and must decide whether to fight for themselves or the collective good. Directed by Yung Chang.
• Gypsy Davy • (Israel/United States/Spain) Filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones profiles her own father, David Jones a k a David Serva, an Alabama boy turned Flamenco superstar.
• The Imposter • (United Kingdom) Director Bart Layton tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who disappears in 1994 from his San Antonio, Texas, home, and resurfaces three years later in Spain — with a story that may be too impossible to be true.
• Indie Game: The Movie • (Canada) Directors Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky dive into the world of independent video-game designers.
• The Law in These Parts • (Israel) With interviews and historical footage, director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz examines Israel’s 43-year-old military legal system in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and its effect on the Palestinians living under it.
• Payback •(Canada) Director Jennifer Baichwal (“Manufactured Landscapes”) adapts Margaret Atwood’s best-seller about debt as a central organizing principle in our lives.
• Putin’s Kiss • (Denmark) A profile of Masha, a 19-year-old spokeswoman for a nationalistic youth movement aligned with Russian premier Vladimir Putin, and what happens when she starts seeing flaws in the organization. directed by Lise Berk Pedersen.
• Searching for Sugar Man • (Denmark/United Kingdom) A portrait of the ‘70s rock star Rodriguez, “the Latin Bob Dylan,” who went from fame to obscurity — only to rise again in a different context many miles away. Directed by Malik Bendjelloul.