2011 | 69 min | China, United States
Filmmaker in Person | U.S. Premiere
The father of two, Luo originally became a coal miner to pay off the fine for violating China’s One Child Policy. Young Hui, son of another miner, prefers to be coal-train driver than take work far from home. For many families, coal mining has become a principal source of income and the only alternative to factory jobs in distant cities. But the mines are notoriously dangerous and, every year, claim an estimated 5,000 lives. Taking his camera deep underground, Yuanchen Liu exposes the perils faced by these miners, the slim rewards, and dire consequences when things go wrong. In spite of the risks, the working poor continue to flock to the mines, unable to heed the warning that earning a living wage may also mean dying for it.
Co-presented by Asia Society
Preceded by
Myron Lameman
2011 | 15 min | Canada | U.S. Premiere
A son of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation crafts a quiet plea to save his people’s territory, which is threatened by tar sands oil extraction.
2011 | 80 min | South Africa, United States
Filmmaker in Person | New York Premiere
Mthetho taught himself to sing in Italian by playing the music a phrase at a time and sounding out the lyrics until he had learned the whole song. Now, in his untrained, heartfelt tenor, he can belt out tear-inducing renditions of “Santa Lucia” and “O Solo Mio.” This young man is just one of the many dedicated Cape Town artists and musicians profiled in Laura Gamse’s pastiche documentary about art in hard times. Rappers, b-boys, graffiti artists, jazz and blues musicians share their work and describe how post-Apartheid South Africa has served as both agent and obstacle to the act of creation. Shot with the intensity of breaking news footage, The Creators reminds us how urgently the world needs its artists.
Co-presented by the Museum for African Art
Preceded by
Deus Ex Boltanski
Robert Gardner
2010 | 11 min | France, United States
Filmmaker in Person | New York Premiere
Robert Gardner’s précis of the manpower and machinery used to mount French artist Christian Boltanski’s Personne exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2010.
2011 | 71 min | United States
Filmmakers in Person | New York City Premiere
A series of tableaux in black and white, Empty Quarter is a 16mm portrait of Lake, Harney, and Malheur counties in southeast Oregon, a region that represents one-third of the state’s landmass yet holds less than two percent of its population. Portland filmmakers Alain LeTourneau and Pam Minty alternate extended takes of the economy in motion—cows crowded in a stockyard, cowboys preparing for a rodeo, workers packing onions for transport—with local voices describing their histories, struggles, and pleasures. As the images and stories accumulate, the quiet beauty of the landscape and rich diversity of the communities belie the monotonous mechanisms that have come to dominate their daily lives.
Co-presented by Anthology Film Archives
Preceded by
The End of the World (Kres Swiata)
Mateusz Skalski
2010 | 9 min | Poland | U.S. Premiere
Only a handful of elders remain in a remote Polish village, where they fill the hours waiting for the bread truck to arrive.
2010 | 54 min | Italy, Nepal
Mazza and Tedeschi in Person | U.S. Premiere
The village of Tsarang seems to exist in another time. Against the immense backdrop of clouds sculpted by the day’s weather and Himalayan peaks sculpted by the ages, life goes on as it has for centuries. The fields are plowed by cows, bricks are handmade out of mud, and goods are transported on mule-back. But modernity has also shaped the village, with the arrival of a motorized tractor, Bollywood reruns on the communal television, and polyester soccer jerseys. Set to the rhythms of this world, the film portrays an old trader who accepts things as they are, a Buddhist nun who longs for more schooling, and a young man who wants to buy a car. Soon, a new road will connect Tsarang to Nepal, paving the way for only some dreams to come true.
Co-presented by Rubin Museum of Art
Preceded by
Moroloja
Alexander Ingham Brooke
2011 | 10 min | Italy, United Kingdom
U.S. Premiere
Alexander Ingham Brooke revisits Martano, Italy, the setting for Cecilia Mangini’s 1962 documentary Stendali (Suonano ancora), which reenacted the pagan funeral rites practiced by female mourners in the town’s Greek enclave.
2009 | 70 min | China, The Netherlands
Filmmaker in Person | U.S. Premiere
Filmmaker and journalist Floris-Jan van Luyn is on the front lines of modern China, depicting the country’s major historical shifts as they occur using through the experiences of the individuals living through them. In Rainmakers, he introduces us to four ordinary people who have become environmental activists out of necessity. Kept awake at night by the noxious fumes of a garbage incinerator, a Beijing woman unites her neighbors in a mass protest. A fisherwoman in a southern province circulates a petition to clean up the river polluted by a nearby paint factory. A tough-minded housewife from Hunan writes letter after letter to officials demanding the shutdown of a nearby factory poisoning her village’s groundwater. A small community of shepherds in Inner Mongolia devise a plan to reclaim desiccated pastureland. While the government pays lip service to green economic policies, these hopeful citizens brave bureaucracy, cynicism, greed, and violence in their fight for the most basic of human rights: clean air and clean water.
Co-presented by Asia Society
Preceded by
Broad Channel
2010 | 13 min | United States
Filmmaker in Person | New York Premiere
Along a narrow band of shore on Jamaica Bay in Queens, New York, man and water meet across the seasons.
