4th Lemesos International Documentary Festival

The “Lemesos International Documentary Festival” is offering again this year a very active program and a first class selection of award-winning creative documentary films. The festival, which is organised by Brave New Culture in cooperation with Cyprus’s University of Technology for the fourth consecutive year, will take place between the 5th and 9th of August 2009 at its permanent venue, the B’ Municipal Market (Theatro Ena) at the heart of the old city of Lemesos. The Festival is sponsored and supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Media Desk Cyprus, the Municipality of Limassol, the Embassy of The Netherlands in Cyprus, the Lemesos Cine Club, and other private and public institutions.

Including films from the most current international production that cover a wide range of the contemporary documentary language, the “Lemesos International Documentary Festival” aspires to be again this year a celebration of the art of documentary filmmaking, which through the penetrating look, the boldness and the freedom of expression of independent creators shall underline the power of the documentary as the par excellence film genre that contributes to the better understanding of the world we live in.

The Festival shall screen for the first time in Cyprus some of the best and most important documentary films of the year. The program will be in general upgraded in relation to previous years, since this year there will also be afternoon screenings. Fifteen documentaries in total shall be screened most of which have been distinguished and awarded by the most important international film festivals. The directors and producers of some of these films shall be honorary guests at the festival and their presence shall provide the public with the possibility of a more direct contact and communication with them.

All documentaries, without exception, that have been selected for this year’s program are, on one hand, interesting from a clearly cinematographic view, and on the other hand, innovative and direct in their social approach. Just like in previous years, the festival will screen films that through the absolutely conscious look of their creators offer a penetrating reading of the human landscape as well as an aesthetic offset to the single-dimension and flattening images of the world that surround us.

The films
Some of the titles of films that stand out in the 2009 Program are René (the story - filmed over twenty years - of an extraordinary character on the edge of society), Corridor # 8 (a “mosaic film” that combines parts from the daily life of strange people who live along a “future” highway in the Balkans), Burma VJ – Reporting from a closed country (about the struggles of journalists – reporters to covered the events in Burma during the September 2007 riots), The English Surgeon (an intimate portrait of neurosurgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship), Captain Kemal: The Comrade (the story of Mihri Belli of Turkish origin who at the age of 92 decides to travel back to Greece in order to visit the places where he fought during the Greek Civil war and meet his comrades-in-arms), Lady Kul el Arab (the story of Angelina, the first Druze woman to attempt significant steps in the Israeli fashion world), Sounds like Teen Spirit (an affectionate comedy about the struggles of growing up and the excitement and difficulties of four inspired kids as they prepare to take part in Europe’s biggest child song writing contest: the Junior Eurovision), Boris Ryzhy (a thorough recording of the story of the Russian poet Boris Ryzhy and the lost Perestroika generation, the voice of which was Boris), RiseUp: Stories from Jamaica’s Music Underground (a musical journey at the heart of Jamaica – the island that gave birth to the global cultural phenomenon of Reggae), and others.

DocsTalk
Apart from the screenings and in the framework of the festival’s parallel activities, a very important meeting and consultation workshop is organised exclusively for professional documentary film directors and producers. The workshop, entitled DocsTalk, shall give directors and producers the possibility to meet with possible sponsors, co-producers and film buyers.
DocsTalk is a mini pitching session and its main objective is to bring together directors and producers with buyers and commissioning editors from international television channels and organisations that are active in the fields of promoting and sponsoring documentary films. Important people from the international field of creative documentary have been invited and will participate for this purpose.

Audiovisual Performance
Another parallel activity scheduled for the opening of the festival on August 5th, and anticipated with great interest, is the audiovisual performance entitled Yannis Kyriakides meets Jean Rouch. The Cypriot composer Yannis Kyriakides will create for this unique performance new music sounds for three films of the French director and anthropologist Jean Rouch. One of the three Rouch films to be screened is the legendary Les maîtres Fous (The Mad Masters).

Closing party
The Festival shall close its activities in a full summer mood with a Reggae music show on the sandy beach of Lady’s Mile by the Roots Crew Sound System. The concert will be given after the screening of the exciting film RiseUp which deals with the underground music stage of Jamaica.

Programme

Wed 5.8
18:30 Captain Kemal: A Comrade*
20:30 Rene
22:00 Yannis Kyriakides meets Jean Rouch: An audiovisual performance

Thu 6.8
18:30 7915km
20:30 One Man Village
22:00 The Caviar Connection*
23:00 Drifter

Fri 7.8
18:30 Corridor #8
20:30 Hair India*
22:00 Lady Kul el Arab
23:00 The English Surgeon*

Sat 8.8
09:00 DOCSTALK Cyprus
20:30 Sounds Like Teen Spirit*
22:00 Boris Ryzhy*
23:00 Burma VJ - Reporting From a Closed Country

Sun 9.8
20:30 Pathways in the Dust. A Topography out of Fragments*
21:00 RiseUp: Stories from Jamaica's Music Underground*
23:00 Closing Party with Roots Crew Sound System at Golden Beach, Lady's Mile

* At the presence of a member of the film’s production

All films will be screened in their original language with english and greek subtitles

Click here to download the detailed programme of the festival (pdf)