The Edinburgh International Film Festival: Documentaries

The Edinburgh International Film Festival began as an event that just celebrated documentary projects in 1947.

Today sixty one years later it is still one of the biggest categories at the festival

Encounters at the End of the World

There is a hidden society at the end of the world. One thousand men and women live together under unbelievably close quarters in Antarctica, risking their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science.

Now, for the first time, an outsider has been admitted. In his first documentary since Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog, accompanied only by his camerman, travelled to Antarctica, with rare access to the raw beauty and raw humanity of the ultimate Down Under.

Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog’s latest meditation on nature, explores this land of Fire, Ice and corrosive Solitude.

Angels in the Dust

It seems so in the case of Marion Cloete who gave up her privileged life in a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg to build an orphanage where she now houses, feeds, educates and cares for more than 500 children whose lives have been shattered, one way or another, by AIDS.

This dynamic film shows Marion's tireless and often fraught efforts to ease suffering, save lives and spread awareness in contrast to the South African government, who refused to acknowledge the AIDS crisis.

The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins

While in the Sudan working on a photographic project, controversial (and dazzlingly self-absorbed) artist Vanessa Beecroft encounters twin baby boys and decides to adopt them.

The problem is, they’re not actually orphans. And, even if they were, Sudanese law doesn’t allow adoption, extended family being expected to step in instead.

And then there’s the small matter of her husband, at home in the US with their two children, blissfully unaware of his capricious wife’s plans. (Edinburgh Film Festival)

Alone in Four Walls

Adolescent boys struggle to grow up in a home for juvenile delinquents in rural Russia, where life behind bars may be better than the release to freedom.

Filmmaker Alexandra Westmeier provides an intimate glimpse at a society from the inside out, where boys under the age of 14 are held for crimes ranging from theft to rape to multiple murders. They receive food and clothing. They go to school and engage in sports.

For the first time in their young lives, they no longer have to fight for their daily existence; they can simply be what they are--children.

Like many of the boys here, Tolya, a murderer, recounts his crimes with unnerving nonchalance. Nonetheless, moments come through in each lad’s speech or mannerisms that reveal the child within the criminal.

A 13-year-old newbie is not even allowed to say good-bye to his mother. He fights back tears that somehow reflect the sorrows of all his comrades.

Eschewing sentimentality, the elegantly crafted Alone in Four Walls is documentary filmmaking of the highest order.

Austere, yet undeniably powerful, Westmeier’s heart-wrenching film literally rises in song, becoming a poignant ode to a lost generation of Russian youth. --© Sundance Film Festival

Cafe De Los Maestros

Tango is not just a dance. On the Rio de la Plata, tango is a way of life. Tango belongs to Argentina--and in particular to cities such as Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Rosario, where tango is much more than simply a nostalgic echo of the past.

Many of the grand old men and women of tango live here. They still perform and some of them have been doing so for almost eighty years.

The documentary portrays some of these exceptional musicians, including creators of tango's classical repertoire and founders of a variety of styles and schools, as well as the members of bands and orchestras who found fame in the 1940s and 1950s, during the golden age of tango.

Other documentaries on show at the festival include: - Dreams With Sharp Teeth

- Fairytale Of Kathmandu

- Jesus Christ Saviour

- Mechanical Love

- Obscene

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw