3rd Nicosia International Documentary Film Festival

Toddling over to its 3rd year of life, the Nicosia International Documentary Film Festival - Views of the World, is now old enough to dare make its first big leap forward. Obtaining some of the most exciting documentaries indicative of the international festival scene, the Nicosia International Festival aims directly at the heart of its audiences promising to bring to them a wide range of the most entertaining, informative and avant guard films to date. Along with the latest productions of cypriot documentarists such as Yiannis Ioannou, Paschalis Papapetrou, Stavros Papageorghiou, whose works will be showcased for the excellence of their local artistry, the Nicosia International Festival wishes to create a frame of reference whereby their works are viewed in equal measure alongside the most brilliant examples of international output.

Mugabe and the White African
Carrying in its baggage the Audience Award of the heavyweight Silverdocs, the Best Documentary of the British Independent Film Awards plus the "Times" comment accompanying it everywhere that "this is a most excellent film", "Mugabe and the White African" begs for your immediate attention. Mike, a farmer in Zimbawe, seems to be a rare example of an African man who is in danger of extinction because of political expediencies : the reason being, that he is simply white. According to President Mugabe the farm does not belong to his family any more; it belongs to the people. In his efforts to win the coming elections, Mugabe promises to the electorate possessions that do not belong to them, possessions, that have been acquired with the sweat and blood of the white man, enforcing thus, a singular type of racism that will finally find its way to the courts. The film directors capture the final stages of Mike's desperate struggle during a horrendous 8 - year obstacle course, and if this weren't a documentary film, it could have been easily certified as an X category film to be shown all over the cinema halls.

Oil City Confidential
This piece of musical brilliance does not need any special recommendation. The product of a splendid career in the backstage of the music industry, this is simply the last masterpiece of the master film maker Julian Temple. "Oil City Confidential" is all that has led Dr Feelgood, one of the most legendary live bands of the 70's, jump into the music void. It is also, an overstylised homage to all rock n' roll boys who knew how to dress in suits with the ease of wearing a dirty T - Shirt and all they could do without having to take their jacket off. If you like the Doctor, we advise you not to rest until you get an appointment with him.

The Edge of Dreaming
What happens when dreams come true? Amy Hardie has always been a rationalist. A director of science fiction movies and a mother of three healthy children, she has never believed in coincidences in her life. Until one day, surrounded by the tranquility of her family farm house and immeasurable quantities of conjugal happiness, she hears in her sleep an unexpected call. Her horse, her children's companion and her own special friend, calls her from her backyard because it appears to be getting ready to die. Amy, with camera in her hands, runs by his side seeing with her own eyes that her dream has come true. Would this mean then, that she should start believing in nightmares? The following day, the dead father of her first child informs her that exactly in a year's time they will meet again in the other world ...

Jaffa, the Colockwork's Orange
Forget all you know about Jaffa (Tel Aviv) and all the documentaries made around it over the last few years. Eyal Sivan makes political filmmaking by holding an orange - the fruit that once hid in its juice the well being of an entire city. Jaffa oranges, famous all over the western world, originally from Palestine, intertwine the history of the two peoples in a golden, round ball, yet to be untangled. Using poetry, painting, old nostalgic reels and even more nostalgic memories, Sivan squeezes out of the orange the history of his country and serves it in a glass for you to drink.

We Live in Public
Having conquered the Sundance (Audience Award) and ultimately the world, "We Live in Public" is the shocking story concerning one of the most controversial internet personalities that has emerged over the last years. At the beginning of the 90's when the internet just began to get into our lives, one man single - handedly determined the future by creating something pioneering for its time: creating that is, a small community of people who shared their personal moments in the first online transmission in real time. Having been arrested as the leader of a heretical group, Josh Harris became known as the "Warhol of the internet" - his ideas later being developed and transformed into what we know today as Myspace and Facebook. What makes compelling viewing however, is the hair raising evidence of what has actually happened in between those events.

The Arrivals
In a world where the identity of an immigrant is embedded in an insignificant finger print, the role of the documentarist has obviously more weight than any other's. Getting into a Paris immigrant reception centre, Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard present us with a great gift: behind the arrivals of the newly brought immigrants who ask for anything because they own nothing, you will discover something even more significant than simply the expected struggle for survival. You will discover immaterial signs of spirituality, unseen flights of the soul, ethereal signs of faith waving over tonnes of concrete misery. And you will be glad you were there! "The Arrivals" won first prize in the DOK Leipzig, perhaps the most important competitor to the amazingly strong IDFA.

Children's Programme by hand of the Interfilm Berlin
The harmonious cooperation that has developed between The Views of the World and the Interfilm Berlin - inaugurated with an excellent programme of short films at the 8th Documentary and Animation Film Festival at Plataniskia - now brings to Nicosia a carefully selected choice of short children's animation films edited by its Artistic Director Heinz Hermanns. The Interfilm Berlin, a multi - faceted active organisation, organises monthly screenings of short films as well as participating in the Berlinale with the popular "Golden Shorts", i.e. the best 12 films that have been loved most by the Berlin audiences during the course of the year. Interfilm is also, the driving force behind the Berlin International Short Films Festival, it owns a small distribution company and it continues to organize the avant guard programme entitled "Going Underground" which is a daily festival of 90 - second films shown on LCD screens at the Berlin underground. The short film, that is, in its greatest glory!

Off screen Info
The 3rd Nicosia International Documentary Film Festival will continue presenting its programme on architecture, as well as the programme on student films in cooperation with the Nicosia University (mediazone). Pushing the bounds of the documentary art to its limits, the Festival aims at highlighting the flexible nature of the art of documentation underlining moreover, its political commitment, its imaginative dreamy qualities, its musical and historical dimension. All these you are invited to discover in the recently renovated building of Pallas Theatre free of charge. Because, as the saying goes, the most beautiful things in life are free!

Click here for the complete programme of the festival.