Power Trip (2003)

Director:
Paul Devlin

IMDB

Synopsis:
In 1999, the major American utility company AES Corporation spent over 30 million dollars to purchase the former Soviet Republic of Georgia's electrical distributing company, Telasi, in a bid to expand the American company's international market share. In his 2003 documentary entitled Power Trip, filmmaker Paul Devlin examined the actions of the Georgian citizenry and governmental officials, as well as those taken by the AES management team. What looked good on paper turned into a series of major business setbacks, as the Republic of Georgia had been beset with constant domestic turmoil since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. Quite nearly from the beginning of the Telasi buy-out, the AES upper management team was presented with numerous seemingly unpredictable and insurmountable obstacles which included the extremely low incomes of the vast majority of the population and pervasive governmental corruption. As the American company struggled to single-handedly update a nearly Third World economy, the Georgian populace was merely struggling to exist. Power Trip was a included in the program for the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.

Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII (2002)

Director:
Aviva Slesin

IMDB

Synopsis:
As an infant at the dawn of World War II, director Aviva Slesin was handed off by her Jewish parents to a Lithuanian family, for safekeeping from the Nazis. Now, Slesin seeks out the stories of other "adoptees" and their families in the documentary Secret Lives: Hidden Children & Their Rescuers During WWII. Over the course of interviews with over five dozen children who escaped the Holocaust, Slesin learns of the struggles, hardships, and love experienced by these displaced sons and daughters, and about their faint memories of their birth parents. By the same token, Slesin finds out the rationales of the families who took them in -- whether due to goodwill, loyalty, or, in some cases, economic gain -- and even examines the resentment felt by some of them toward their "new" brothers and sisters. Featuring a score by avant-garde composer John Zorn, Secret Lives made the festival rounds in 2002, winning an award at the Hamptons Film Festival before its theatrical release in 2003.

The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom (2007)

Director:
Adam Curtis

IMDB

Synopsis:
The many ways in which Western notions of personal and political freedom are changing in the 21st Century are explored in this three-part documentary from writer and filmmaker Adam Curtis. Part one, titled "F--k You, Buddy," explores how the widely held belief formulated by economist Friedrich von Hayek that the free market system would create a wealthier and more responsible society is giving way to John Nash's principle that individuals will almost always do what is in their own best interest, even if its at the expense of others. Part Two, "The Lonely Robot," focuses on how governments often act in their own interest at the expense of their citizens, and the malaise that's a by product of growing cynicism by ordinary people towards their leaders. And the conclusion, "We Will Force You To Be Free," investigates the theories of British thinker Isaiah Berlin and his twin principles of "positive liberty" (in which the people take direct and active control of their destiny) and "negative liberty" (freedom that inherited with no active effort towards any specific goal). Featuring interviews with John Nash, James Buchanan, Robert Reich, Tom Peters, Thomas Frank, Sir Anthony Jay and many others, The Trap: What Happened To Our Dream Of Freedom was originally produced for British television, but later received theatrical screenings at a number of film festivals.

Mule Skinner Blues (2001)

Director:
Stephen Earnhart

IMDB

Synopsis:
Set in Florida's beach community, Mule Skinner Blues chronicles a group of locals who crave self-expression in the midst of their Southern Gothic lifestyles. Chief among the figures is Beanie Andrew, a fifty-something former alcoholic who acts, sings, dances, writes, and lives in a trailer park outside Jacksonville and who finds work as an extra in a music video. He then presents Stephen with a series of home videos displaying his and his friends' talents. Most of them are out-of-work shrimpers, such as Steve Walker, a Vietnam veteran and troubadour; Ricky Lix, an ill-tempered blues guitarist; Miss Jeannie, a country singer who also has a penchant for yodeling; and Annabelle Lea, an art school grad and costume designer who keeps her departed bulldog's dead body in a backyard freezer. After the music video shoot, Stephen returns to Florida to find the group beginning work on an ambitious horror film called "Turnabout Is Fair Play," which has no completed script; still, the team tries to pull together to make the picture. The subject matter is very similar to Chris Smith's award-winning documentary American Movie, which also followed a struggling group of filmmakers through their production of a very low-budget genre piece.

Devil's Playground (2002)

Director:
Lucy Walker

IMDB

Synopsis:
Lucy Walker directed this documentary about a little-known facet of Amish life. Although the Amish live in traditionally conservative enclaves, shunning modern conveniences and electricity while favoring a strict code of conduct and dress, they do have a moment in their lives known as "rumspringa." When an Amish child turns 16, they are allowed to interact with and take part in life away from their upbringing. This film follows a handful of teenagers as they break from their past and experiment with drinking, drugs, and driving (possibly for the only time in their lives). Devil's Playground was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Paris Is Burning (1990)

Director:
Jennie Livingston

IMDB

Synopsis:
Poignant, well-received documentary that reveals the community of New York's minority drag queens, gay black and Latino men who cross dress as women and invent the dance style of "voguing," imitating the fashion poses on the covers of the magazine Vogue. As director Jennie Livingston discovers, her subjects band together into family-like "houses" for protection, taking the same last names and competing in drag balls where awards are given out for authenticity or "realness," as well as other categories like "evening wear" and "executive wear." Both an embracing and a refutation of the world of high fashion, the balls become the social locus of this underclass, underground society of outcasts defiantly refusing to be ignored by a world that scorns them. Paris Is Burning was one of several critically acclaimed documentaries of the late 1980s and early 1990s excluded from Academy Award nominations, eventually leading to a reappraisal of the Academy's stodgy selection process.

Flag Wars (2003)

Directors:
Linda Goode Bryant, Laura Poitras

IMDB

Synopsis:
Socio-economic status, minority rights, and housing codes all come into dramatic conflict in co-directors Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras' 2003 documentary Flag Wars. Set in a historic district in Columbus, OH, named Olde Towne East, Bryant and Poitras discover the serenity of the primarily African-American neighborhood is in jeopardy. Gay professionals are moving into the neighborhood with the intentions of buying inexpensive property, and as they improve upon their acquisitions, the new residents stand accused of using underhanded -- yet legal -- tactics in order to force the longtime residents to either refurbish their properties or move out of the district altogether. Yet the two minority groups are not as far removed from one another as it would initially appear, as certain conservative elements within the greater Columbus community seem interested in using the conflict to further their own agendas. Flag Wars was a competing film at the 2003 South by Southwest Film Festival, where it was awarded the Jury Documentary Prize.

Festival Express (2003)

Director:
Bob Smeaton

IMDB

Synopsis:
In 1970, with seemingly every North American city of any size holding a rock festival after the success of Woodstock, Ken Walker and Thor Eaton, a pair of Canadian entrepreneurs and music buffs, had an idea: instead of setting up one massive show with a bunch of top-name acts, why not stage a series of them across the country? With this in mind, Walker (then only 22 years old) and Eaton (whose family owned one of Canada's most successful department store chains) signed up Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band, Buddy Guy, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and several others and hired out a private train that would carry the musicians in high style for a string of five shows from Toronto to Calgary. The jaunt was called "The Festival Express," and a camera crew tagged along to capture the shows on film, as well as the constant party that took place en route. The tour proved to be a financial bust and, as a result, the footage sat on the shelf for over thirty years until director Bob Smeaton recut the material into Festival Express, which not only documents the glorious folly of the tour, but offers a hindsight look at the events from some of the surviving participants.

Up the Yangtze (2007)

Director:
Yung Chang

IMDB

Synopsis:
Director Yung Chang uses the construction of China's massive Three Gorges Dam as a springboard to better understanding the social hierarchies and changing times in his homeland in this documentary focusing on the luxury cruise ship that carries predominately Western tourists down the Yangtze River. Constructed as a symbol of modern progress in China, the Three Gorges Dam has forced millions of common people out of their ancestral homes, and will soon swallow up numerous nearby towns and villages. Despite the fact that the government has funded alterative housing for the dislocated families, however, many citizens make their way to higher ground feeling as if they have been duped by the powers that be. In order to truly understand how this affects the people, Chang focuses on telling the stories of middle-class scion Chen Bo Yu (renamed "Jerry" by the cruise line) and Yu Shui (who answers to the call of "Cindy" while on duty). As the ship sets sail, this hard-working pair do their best to familiarize themselves with Western social cues, striving to perform to the best of their abilities, and ponder the prospects of a brighter future.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Director:
David Gelb

IMDB

Synopsis:
Jiro Ono is one of the most-respected and acclaimed sushi chefs in Japan. At the age of 85, he operates an exclusive sushi restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro, with a long waiting list for reservations (the restaurant has a mere ten tables and a typical meal costs $300) and a prized three-star rating from the Michelin restaurant guide. Perfecting the art of sushi has been one of Ono's obsessions since he was a young man, and filmmaker David Gelb offers a delicious look into his life and work in the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. In the film, Ono discusses his unhappy childhood, his early days in the restaurant game, and his techniques and philosophies about his chosen dish; he also interacts with fish dealers and his two sons, both gifted chefs who live and work in their father's shadow. Jiro Dreams of Sushi was an official selection at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.