East Silver
//Category: Mid-Length Documentary
//Category: Feature Documentary
Arsy-Versy / Miro Remo / 2009 / Slovakia / 23'
Film about mom and her son Lubos, who conquered the world upside down. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 91)
Chasm / Wojciech Kasperski / 2009 / Poland / 34'
An intimate portrait of gold fever. The gold-bearing mountains of Northen Siberia are the background for the Jack London style story: A Lonely Gold Seeker is looking for his Treasure.He is surrounded by unfriendly nature and by people he can't trust. Being chased by his own fears, he breaks up with the whole world and shuts himself in the trap of his great desire. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 188)
Dreamers / Nermin Hamzagic / 2009 / Bosnia and Herzegovina / 30'
"Dreamers" is a film about two young hip hopers Samir Karic and Amir Muminovic from a small village Hajvazi in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Because of the lyrics in one of their songs where they criticize the local Mayor, they have been attacked by Mayor's son. East West Centre and director Haris Pasovic invited them to play in his show Class Enemy after reading an article in some local newspaper about this incident. The show Class Enemy is about a disempowered group of students in one of the local high schools raging with violence. Samir and Amir go for a World Tour with the play. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 142)
Faithful / Nastia Tarasova / 2008 / Russia / 28'
Sometimes rules and traditions of the ancestors stand in the way of one's private life, but one puts up with that, always remaining loyal and faithful... (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 149)
I love my boring life / Jan Gogola jr. / 2009 / Czech Republic / 26'
A diary of a grandmother from the Prague neighborhood of Zbraslav as a diary of eternity. Using informal language, for five years grandmother Alena Němcová from Zbraslav has been writing down weather forecasts, dreams, morning exercise, recipes, regular house bustle, global events as well as notes concerning relationships, religion and the general spirit of the age. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 192)
Jolly Old Farts / Manfred Vainokivi / 2008 / Estonia / 28'
Portrait of two old-school cinema guys, whose joy of life is fuelled by constant rivalry and copious amounts of alcohol. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 202)
The Lucky Ones / Tomasz Wolski / 2009 /Poland / 27'
The field of observation is limited to the seat of the Registry Office within its opening hours, or more specifically to its three rooms. One of them is used to register births, the second one – deaths and the third one – weddings. The observation of the clients' and clerks' behavior in each room unveils a picture of our everyday life as well as fate. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 220)
New Kaisertal city / Melanie Hollaus / 2008 / Austria / 34'
"New Kaisertal City" should be seen as a political comment on the situation of immigrants in Tyrol. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 236)
Six Weeks / Marcin Janos Krawczyk / 2009 / Poland / 18'
Due to different life situations there are mothers who do not want or those who cannot bring up their children. They have the right to give the child away just after delivery. During the first six weeks of the newborn's life the mother has to make the decision about the definit resignation of her parental rights. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 288)
Songs From the Tundra / Alexander Berman / 2009 / Russia / 24'
"Songs from the Tundra" is a lyric journey through the awkward modernity of the Even people of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia's most remote frontier. The film unfolds in a series of native Even songs belonging to a forgotten generation. As they sing of hunters and herders, the Evens attempt to recreate their mythic past in a reindeer camp at the foot of the Alney volcano. But hearth alone cannot be home. The Evens must leave their reindeer on a truly fearsome beast. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 293)
Till it hurts / Marcin Koszalka / 2008 / Poland / 25'
The story of a lonely, 53-year-old psychiatrist living with his severely overprotective mother. When a woman steps into the picture, a bad conflict breaks out. After years of sexual abstinence, Ewa brings out the man in him. His mother yells, 'Wake up, you're fifty- three!". He answers in St. Paul's words, 'Children obey your parents, honour thy father and thy mother and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.“ (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 303)
Category: Mid-Length Documentary
Apocalypse on Wheels / Alexandru Solomon / 2008 / Romania / 52'
This is a film about what the car traffic turns us into. (more a in East Silver Catalogue, p. 88)
The Bell / Audrius Stonys / 2008 / Lithuania / 56'
There is a story of a drowned bell, lying for several hundred years on the bottom of one Lithuanian lake. The underwater expedition tries to find the bell and buoy it up from it. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 101)
Cuba Is Music / Ilian Djevelekov / 2009 / Bulgaria / 45'
In Cuba everything is expressed by music – the declaration of love and the rich harvest, the birth of a child and the loss of a donkey, the longing and the melancholy. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 131)
Gatekeepers of War / Zijad Ibrahimovic / 2009 / Bosnia and Herzegovina – Switzerland / 52'
A man returns to his homeland for a funeral. The bodies of his parents were discovered in a mass grave. Someone who returns home after twenty years is looking for answers. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 165)
Jan Palach’s Message / Kristina Vlachová / 2008 / Czech Republic / 57'
Documentary marking the 40th Anniversary of self-burning act of the Czech student Jan Palach. On the 16th of January 2009 it will be 40 years from the self-burning of Jan Palach.
He has committed this act in protest against the progressing lethargy and pusillanimity of the Czechoslovak nation following the occupation of Czechoslovakia in the 1968. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 201)
King Hugo and his Damsel / Franco De Pena, Francisco Arteaga Paez / 2009 / Poland, Venezuela / 47'
August 2007, Venezuelan's President Chavez convokes a referendum in order to change the constitution and get absolute power. The student movement opposes the reform and is brutally repressed by the Police. Hugo Rey is a connection with the totalitarian mechanism employed by Chavez to perpetuate his power. After the film was shown in Venezuelan Cable Tv, all the independent Directors are a Military target of the Chavez's Militia Group "La Piedrita." (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 205)
Nyarma / Edgar Bartenev / 2008 / Russia / 41'
Film is about everyday life of reindeer-breeders in polar Ural mountain region of Russia. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 242)
Přízrak svobody II (Phantom of Liberty II) / Karel Žalud / 2009 / Czech Republic / 57'
In the so-called global age, a man is caught in the trap of time that he has set for himself and got stuck in it together with his freedom. Experimental documentary about time that explores its physical quantity as well as its crucial impact on our actions, behaviour, perception, social rituals and out outlook on the world. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 257)
Rabbit a la Berlin / Bartek Konopka / 2009 / Poland / 51'
The untold story about wild rabbits which lived between the Berlin Walls. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 268)
The Sidetrack / Anna Kazejak / 2009 / Poland / 45'
"The Sidetrack" is a film about people united by a specific and a bit forgotten form of spending free time – train holidays. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 285)
Women and the Guards / Una Celma / 2009 / Latvia / 52‘
The film is a philosophical essay about the woman prisoner, the victim of traditional and Islamitic laws and the prison guard, representing Western democracy, with both in the paradoxical situation that a progressively run prison may just be the best and safest place for an abandoned woman in contemporary Afghanistan. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 338)
Category: Feature Documentary
AUTO*MATE / Martin Mareček / 2009 / Czech Republic / 90'
A playful essay about automobile-automatic society. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 95)
The Belgrade Phantom / Jovan Todorovič / 2009 / Serbia / 80'
The Phantom in the white Porsche has to be removed from the streets of Belgrade. "Fast and Furious" of the Socialist era at the end of the 70's and one of the most successful films of the Serbian cinema in the past 10 years. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 100)
The Border / Jaro Vojtek / 2009 / Slovakia / 72'
A documentary about a village that was during one night in 1947 separated by force into a Soviet and a Czechoslovak part in a way, that the border runs through the middle of the village, separating properties and families. (more a in East Silver Catalogue, p. 110)
Defamation / Yoav Shamir / 2009 / AT, DK, IL, USA / 93'
What is anti-semitism two generations after the Holocaust? In his exploration of modern Israeli life, director Yoav Shamir comes up with some startling answers. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 137)
Disco & Atomic War / Jaak Kilmi / 2009 / Estonia / 77'
Disco and Atomic War tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. And looses. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children's world-views in those days – in ways that now seem slightly odd. Finnish television was a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block in any way. Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access the forbidden fruit. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 139)
Forgotten Transports to Poland / Lukáš Přibyl / 2009 / Czech Republic / 90'
Breaking down our notions about "Holocaust documentaries", the film focuses on human identity and its changes. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 158)
In Comparison / Harun Farocki / 2009 / Austria / 62'
Bricks are the resonating fundamentals of society. Bricks are layers of clay that sound, like records just simply too thick. They appear in series, but every brick is slightly different – not just another brick in the wall. They resonate in a way that tells us if they are good enough or not. Bricks form the fundamental sound of our societies, but we haven´t learned to listen to them. Farocki´s film has our eyes and ears consider them in comparison – and not in competition, not as clash of cultures. Farocki shows us various brick production sites in their colours, movements and sounds. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 193)
Jan Hus - A Mass for Three Dead Men / Miroslav Bambušek / 2009 / Czech Republic / 73'
Jan Hus – A Mass for Three Dead Men tries to recover the legacy of the medieval reformist priest Jan Hus who was burnt to death by inquisition for his criticism and calling for reformation of the Catholic Church in 1415. The story takes place in the late 20th Century and relates to history of territory recently known as the Eastern Block. Jan Hus introduces three individuals – Ryszard Siwiec, Oskar Brüsewitz, and Graham Bamford, who set themselves on fire to protest against the political regimes in which they lived, and against which they had struggled. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 199)
One out of 8 / Sabine Derflinger / 2009 / Austria / 90'
The personal story of two women, who are afflicted by breast cancer. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 248)
Snapshots / Peter Krištúfek / 2008 / Slovakia / 90'
Chronologically arranged documentary Snapshots portrays the life of the legendary Czechoslovakian rock musician Dežo Ursiny as well as depicts the times he had lived in. Ursiny's relatives, friends and colleagues from music bands (i.e. Ivan Štrpka, Andrej Šeban, Radek Pastrňák, Zdenka Krejčová…) talk about him, his life and his work. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 291)
The Town of Badante Woman / Stephan Komandarev / 2009 / Bulgaria / 70'
A town without women. The men look after the children, cook, do the washing and… wait for money from their wives who work abroad. The Bulgarian town of Varshets is the site of a staggering social experiment. Many of its women work as "badante" in Italy, taking care of the old and the sick. The social structure of Varshets is changing and the transformations - some dramatic, others humorous - are everywhere: in the pubs, in the families, in the local brass band… And at the bus station, where once a year the women arrive for holidays. (more in East Silver Catalogue, p. 306)
