American Blackout
92 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Ian Inaba Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney took an active role investigating the voter disenfranchisement that occurred in 2000 but soon found herself in her own election debacle after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9-11 terrorist attacks. American Blackout gains unprecedented access to one of the most controversial and dangerous politicians in America and travels from Florida to Georgia to Ohio examining the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence political dissent.

www.americanblackout.com

71 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Maryam Kashani World Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Leaving Iran for San Francisco in the 1960, my father and his friends maintained a friendship that would span over forty years, through cultural revolutions and political events that changed the world around them. By interweaving the history of oil relations between the U.S. and Iran with personal mishaps, achievements, and relationships, Best in the West explores the possibilities and limits of freedom, and the importance of friendship throughout this struggle.  

myrmur@gmail.com

55 minutes, 2007 DVCAM, Australia By Camille Hardman and John Fink World Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Once upon a time there was a prosperous sugar producing town in tropical Australia called Tully. When Brazil dumps its sugar stockpile on the global market, the townsfolk call a meeting to save Tully from financial disaster. One man proposes to build The World’s Biggest Gumboot in honor of Tully’s record rainfall. Ron Hunt, the town elder, hires the famous Bryan Newell to build the boot, putting local artist Roger Chandler’s nose out of joint. As the boot's cost grows out of hand, its construction is delayed by rain! After all of this bother, will the boot save Tully from ruin?  

www.bigdreamers.info

82 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Frank Popper Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Mr. Smith follows the 2004 Missouri Democratic primary to replace former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt. Told from inside the campaign of Jeff Smith, a 29-year old part-time political science instructor at Washington University, the film offers an unvarnished look at the inside of what national pundits called one of 2004's surprising campaigns. Mr. Smith asks if it is still possible in America for voters, excited by a person's ideas and ability, to get involved in the political process and elect a candidate who has not sold out or bought into the existing political establishment.

www.mrsmithmovie.com

The Cats of Mirikitani
74 minutes, 2006 DV, USA By Linda Hattendorf 2007 Best Documentary Feature Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition Asia Docs Series

"Make art not war" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This 80 year old Japanese American artist was born in California and grew up in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York City, angrily drawing pictures of WWII internment camps and atomic bombs. When a filmmaker stops to ask about his art, a friendship begins that will change both their lives after 9/11. An intimate exploration of the lingering trauma of war and discrimination -- and the healing power of art.

www.thecatsofmirikitani.com

China Blue
88 minutes, 2006 DVCAM, China By Micha X. Peled Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition Asia Docs Series

China Blue is a powerful and poignant journey into the harsh world of sweatshop workers. Shot clandestinely, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retailers don't want us to see: how the clothes we buy are actually made.

www.bullfrogfilms.com

The Color of Olives
97 minutes, 2006 miniDV, Palestine/Mexico By Carolina Rivas 2007 Artistic Vision Award Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition Asia Docs Series

The Amer family lives by the infamous West Bank Wall where their daily lives are dominated by electrified fences, locked gates and a constant swarm of armed soldiers. This intimate documentary shares their private world, allowing a glimpse of the constant struggles and the small, endearing details that sustain them. The Color of Olives is an artistic and beautifully affecting reflection on the effects of racial segregation, the meaning of borders and the absurdity of war.

From the Big Sky Jury: "This film transports us into a time and place through its artistic vision. It allows the viewer to observe from the vantage point of those living in the midst of a difficult conflict - a Palestinian family imprisoned in their own home. The film artfully conveys the truth and poignancy of this situation without the limits of more conventional filmmaking techniques."

www.thecolourofolives.com

Distorted Propaganda
67 minutes, 2006 miniDV, China/USA By Jeff Lodas World Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Through the window of Chinese propaganda in Tibet, Distorted Propanda looks at topics such as education, entertainment, urban development, religion, political anniversary celebration, and Tibet's peaceful liberation. Delving directly into the propaganda world, the film both illuminates and raises questions about these topics through interviews with Tibetans for whom propaganda existed as an integral part of daily life.

www.distortedpropaganda.com

First Lesson in Peace
56 minutes, 2006 Beta SP, Israel/Palestine by Yoram Honig Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

First Lesson in Peace explores the Jewish-Arab conflict through the eyes of a six year old girl, the director's daughter, when she starts school at the mixed Arab-Jewish primary school Neveh Shalom-The Oasis of Peace. This unique school provides Jewish and Arab children with an educational framework for learning together. The film follows the clashes and encounters that the child goes through during her first year at Neveh Shalom. As a virtual microcosm of the extended conflict between two cultures, First Lesson in Peace searches for humane, honest and lasting solutions.

Yoram Honig
www.ruthfilms.com

87 minutes, 2007 miniDV/16mm, USA By Arianna Gerstein and Monteith McCollum World Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Milk in the Land weaves together a quirky, alternative history of America's most committed culinary choice. Food and culture are bound in mysterious ways and milk is often assumed to be the perfect food, consumed since the beginning of time and delivered to us as a gift from nature. However, according to our sources, there are other stories that need to be told.

www.thirtymilesfromanywhere.com

One Day In People's Poland
59 minutes, 2005 Digital BetaCam, Poland/France/Germany By Maciej Drygas Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

This innovative historical film contains only archival materials in an effort to reconstruct one day, from dawn to dusk, in People's Poland. Director Maciej Drygas choses Septemeber 27, 1962, an ordinary day when no sizable historical events happen. Using this unassuming strategy, One Day in People's Poland cleverly and amusingly reveals the national political context of daily life in the shadow of the Soviet Union in the early 1960s.

www.international.typ.pl

Operation Homecoming
80 minutes, 2007 HDCAM, USA By Richard E. Robbins Sneak Preview

Operation Homecoming is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American soldiers through their own words. The film is built upon a project created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of soldiers and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through interviews and dramatic readings, the film presents a profound window into the human side of America’s current conflicts.

www.thedocumentarygroup.com

52 minutes, 2005 Beta SP, Poland By Ireneusz Dobrowolski North American Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

The Portraitist is the story of pre-war photographer Wilhelm Brasse. Prior to World War II, photography was Brasse's life passion. However, after being imprisoned in Auschwitz and forced to take photos of not only prisoners and SS officers but also victims of medical experiments, this creative passion was permanently altered. When the war ended, Wilhelm Brasse rescued the camp's archives but never took a photo again.

Ireneusz Dobrowolski
www.international.tvp.pl

66 minutes, 2006 DVCPRO 50/16mm, USA By Shaun Conrad & David Raccuglia Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Through Purvis Young, a self-taught artist who learned to paint in prison, we experience a world deeper than what social stature can define. Out of the ghetto where Purvis has always lived and into the galleries, museums, and mansions where his artwork hangs, we confront contrasting and universal expressions of despair and oppression, hope and freedom.

www.ruralstudios.net

Rain in a Dry Land
82 minutes, 2006 miniDV, Kenya/USA By Anne Makepeace Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Rain in a Dry Land is the tale of two remarkable families, both refugees from the 1991 civil war in Somalia, who find new homes in urban America, one family in Springfield, MA, the other in Atlanta, GA. This film captures the poetry, humor, and astonishing resilience of these new Americans as they show us our world through fresh eyes.

www.makepeaceproductions.com

The Rich Have Their Own Photographers
60 minutes, 2007 DVCAM, USA By Ezra Bookstein and Scott Feinstein World Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

In 1957, Milton Rogovin was declared “The Top Red in Buffalo” by The Buffalo News. Consequently, Rogovin's political voice was silenced. Society shunned him and his friends disappeared. As an optometrist active in the local unions and helping to register Black voters, Rogovin refused to remain quiet and found a new political voice - the camera. He began documenting Buffalo’s poorest residents, photographing the disenfranchised and the marginalized. For Rogovin, his prints are his protests and represent his fight for social justice.

www.therichhavetheirownphotographers.com

Rise and Shine
91 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Justin Adler World Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Rise and Shine portrays high school theater arts teacher, Charlotte Brown, her students, and the challenges they face while competing in speech and debate tournaments in Texas. For the past 45 years, Ms. Brown has been building a nationally-recognized theater department. Many of her former students have become Hollywood actors, politicians, lawyers, college professors, and writers for film and television. From the first tournament of the year to the Texas State Championship, Rise and Shine redefines the meaning of victory and exposes the true value of one teacher's dedication.

www.smilerfilms.com

105 minutes, 2006 DVCAM- Iraq/France/Jordan/Spain By Jean-Pierre Krief North American Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Saddam Hussein: The Trial presents an exceptional inquiry, carried out over one year, with judges, lawyers, victims, investigators, legal experts and senior officials involved in the preparation of Saddam Hussein's trial. For 18 months, the director conducts an global investigation across Iraq, Jordan, France, the United States and Spain and asks: How was the Iraqi Special Tribunal created? Who really controls this trial? What role will Saddam, who holds a degree in Law, play during the trial? What charges will be held and validated against Saddam Hussein, and with what evidence?

www.ksvisions.fr

82 minutes, 2006 miniDV, Sierra Leone/Guinea/USA By Zach Niles and Banker White Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are a band of six Sierra Leonean musicians who have been living as refugees in the West African nation of the Republic of Guinea. A brutal civil war forced them from their homes in Sierra Leone. Both family and friends were murdered in the violence, leaving them with physical and emotional scars that may never heal. Despite the unimaginable horrors of civil war, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have found, through their music, refuge, purpose and a source of power by giving voice to the experiences of those who struggle to survive.

www.refugeeallstars.org

64 minutes, 2006 miniDV, New Zealand By Sandor Lau and Rhonda Kite North American Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Starfish is a Maori man who survives by washing car windows at intersections on the mean streets of South Auckland, New Zealand. As a born hustler, Starfish possesses a magnetic personality, an infectious sense of humor, and a vicious temper. Squeegee Bandit follows Starfish's struggles through nine months, three cars, two women, thirty residences, a hundred run-ins with the cops, one court date, a kilo of marijuana, a closet full of skeletons, three weeks of homelessness and a continuous search for God in the Zen of window washing.

www.squeegeebandit.com

57 minutes, 2006 HDV, United Kingdom By Jeanie Finlay World Premiere Documnetary Feature Competition

Four bedrooms, four teenagers, four portraits of life behind the closed bedroom door. "Teenland" takes us into the sanctuary of four British adolescents on the brink of adulthood and explores their passions, obsessions and hopes for the future.

www.ruby-online.co.uk/teenland

Up the Ridge
54 minutes, 2006 Beta SP, USA By Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

In 1999, Up the Ridge directors Szuberla and Kirby were DJs for the Appalachian region's only hip-hop radio program in Whitesburg, KY when they received hundreds of letters from inmates transferred into Wallens Ridge, the area's newest prison. The letters described both human rights violations and racial tensions. An in-depth look at the U.S. prison industry and the social impact of moving thousands of inner-city minority offenders to rural outposts, Up the Ridge explores the competing political agendas that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences.

www.uptheridge.org

Walking to Werner
92 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Linas Phillips Montana Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

In 1974, director Werner Herzog walked from Munich to Paris to see his dying friend, film critic Lotte Eisner, hoping that making the journey on foot would somehow force her to stay alive. Hoping to meet the man who had inspired him to make movies, actor/filmmaker Linas Phillips walked 1,200 from Seattle to Herzog’s Los Angeles home. Linas' walk fulfills a dream that parallels the filmic dreams accomplished by his hero. But as one marginal roadside character after another shares a story with him they begin to steal focus from Linas’ obsession with Herzog.

www.linasfilms.com

Wasted Orient
90 minutes, 2006 DVCAM, China/USA By Kevin Fritz Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition Asia Docs Series

Forget everything you think you know about China in the twenty-first century. In Wasted Orient, a Beijing rock band embarks on its first nationwide tour as the artists wrestle with life in a transitional society. The film serves viewers a hearty helping of Chinese subculture's social reality, one that is best consumed with a few beers.

"In recent years, the Western press has devoted much time to covering the nouveaux riches springing up in modern China. Wasted Orient debunks the perception that most of the country is looking toward a hopeful and prosperous future."
- The Patriot News

www.wastedorient.com

When Fried Eggs Fly
65 minutes, 2006 miniDV, USA By Constantine Limperis Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

When Fried Eggs Fly is the journey of New York city school teacher, Bruce Mack, as he takes on the challenge of teaching 150 eight year olds how to compose and perform a piece of music before summer vacation. Mack is a dynamic, innovative artist with strong jazz roots and improvisation. He lives by the belief that "music creates an opportunity to understand one another." Can this kind of idealism enable these disinterested children to rise to the challenge of making music with wooden marimbas and congas?

www.whenfriedeggsfly.com

Who Gets to Call it Art?
78 minutes, 2006 Super 16mm, USA By Peter Rosen Northwest Premiere Documentary Feature Competition

Who Gets to Call It Art? is a wild ride through the fascinating world of the 1960's New York art scene. With never-before-seen footage of artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein, and exclusive interviews with Frank Stella, David Hockney, and James Rosenquist, the film explores one of the most fertile periods of American Art as seen through the eyes of MOMA curator Henry Geldzahler. With music from The Velvet Underground, CAN, Eric Dolphy, and the Monks, Who Gets to Call It Art? documents the amazing years when American artists forever changed the world of art.

www.peterrosenproductions.com