5th Lemesos International Documentary Festival

The "Lemesos International Documentary Festival" is back, promising viewers for a fifth consecutive year a rich programme of activities and a first class selection of award winning creative documentary films. The festival will take place between the 4th and 8th of August 2010 at its usual venue, the B’ Municipal Market (Theatro Ena) at the heart of the old city of Lemesos. The Festival is organized by Brave New Culture and is sponsored and supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Cyprus University of Technology, Media Desk Cyprus, the Lemesos Municipality, the Embassy of the Netherlands in Cyprus, the Lemesos Film Club and other private and public institutions.

With films selected from the most recent international production, covering a wide range of the contemporary international documentary genre, the “Lemesos International Documentary Festival” aspires for yet another year to celebrate the art of creative documentary, with the selected films being at the focus of attention.

Apart from being interesting and innovative in terms of cinematographic value, all documentaries which make up the programme of the Festival deal with important and urgent issues faced by modern society. The documentary is par excellence the genre which aims at capturing and interpreting reality, offering viewers the possibility to approach the facts of life in a different, more analytical and substantial manner, urging them to reflect, discuss and ask questions.

Like every year, this year’s films also bear the personal mark of their directors-creators who, through their penetrating and conscious view, attempt to express the complex and inescapable aspects of reality in a creative and imaginative way. The documentary contributes probably more than any other means of expression to a better understanding of the world we live in, offering a form of alternative information which presupposes reflecting and taking a stand, which penetrates into the essence of things, investigates and wonders with passion and genuineness about what is real.

During the Festival some of the best and most important documentaries of the current year will be screened for the first time in Cyprus. The programme includes a total of 16 documentaries, most of which have been distinguished and awarded at major international festivals. The directors and producers of some of these films have been invited as honorary guests at the Festival, and their presence will give viewers the opportunity for direct contact and communication.

The Films
Here are some of the titles which make up the screening programme for 2010: Rip: A Remix Manifesto (an exciting film on how culture builds on culture in the digital era of mash-up media), Rabbit à la Berlin (a metaphorical film on the unknown story of the wild rabbits which used to live between the Walls of Berlin), Sounds of Insects (the incredible story of the discovery, by a hunter, of the mummified body of a forty year old man who committed suicide through self-starvation), The Shock Doctrine (the last documentary of renowned director Michael Winterbottom, based on Naomi Klein’s best seller with the same title), Murid (the spiritual journey of Chris, now known as Alauddin, to Cyprus and the home of the spiritual seat of Sheikh Nazim), Last Train Home (a human story on family separation in contemporary China, incompatible with the rapid industrial development of the country), Disco & Atomic War (the story of a strange kind of information war where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture and eventually loses), Iron Crows (a poetic film which presents the misery in a ship breaking yard in Bangladesh and the everyday hardships of workers there), The Cove (an inspired action documentary which takes a stand for the freedom of dolphins in the city of Taji in Japan) and many more.

You will find more information and the synopses of all the films in the attached Screenings Programme of the Festival.

DocsTalk
For the second year in a row, the DocsTalk workshop is organized in the framework of the Festival’s parallel activities, in collaboration with Media Desk Cyprus. This two-day workshop, unique in Cyprus, gives producers/directors and young talent the opportunity to learn more about both the development and creation of documentary films in Europe and the possibilities for promoting their own films in the most important European film markets.

Opening and Closing Parties
The Festival opens and closes (on August 4 and 8) with two musical events, at the Festival’s venue.

Subtitles
All films will be screened in their original language with Greek and English subtitles.