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SELECTED FILMS for 2012 (A - H)
Congratulations to the following films for making the cut!


A State Of Mind Photo
A State Of Mind Photo

A STATE OF MIND
Director: Daniel Gordon

An observational film following two young gymnasts and their families for over eight months in the lead up to the Mass Games- involving a cast of thousands in a choreographed socialist realism spectacular- the biggest and most elaborate human performance on earth.

Entitled ‘A State of Mind’, the film provides a rare glimpse into what is one of the world’s least known societies. North Korea is sealed off from outside influences. It borders China and Russia to the north, and to the south there is a 4km wide impenetrable border with South Korea. The country follows its own communist ideals, a strict philosophy known as the Juche Idea wrapped around the worship of the Kim dynasty – Kim II Sung, their Eternal President who died in 1994 but remains Head of State, and his son and successor, Kim Jong II, known as the General.

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A TRIBUTE TO BERNIE KRISHER
Director: Laurie Kreindler

Two days after Prince Sihanouk returned from exile, he invited Bernie Krisher, Tokyo bureau Chief for Newsweek Magazine, to the Royal Palace and asked him to help him rebuild Cambodia. Bernie, who had escaped from Nazi Germany with his family 50 years earlier, immediately said “Yes, I’ll Do It!” and despite landmines, active Khmer rouge and the 1997 coup, inspired great people to do great things: the Cambodia Daily, the Sihanouk Hospital Center for HOPE, the Rural School Project, The Girls Be Ambitious Program, the Bright Future Kids Home, and A New Life Orphanage.


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AMERICAN WINTER
Directors: Jessica Green and Lee Ah Lee

This is a short film of two Hawaii teenagers exploring a new setting, though still in America, that happens to be the polar opposite of everything they’re accustomed to: the severe cold of Tahoe in the dead of winter. Going from the warm tropics to the freezing continental United States provides not just for climate change, but also for a crash course in an entirely different culture. A tale riddled with adventure and misadventure, this movie explores the culture of not just Americans in general, but the extreme divergence within a western culture.

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AMONGST WHITE CLOUDS
Director: Edward A. Burger

An unforgettable journey into the hidden tradition of China's Buddhist hermit monks Amongst White Clouds is an intimate insider's look at students and masters living in scattered retreats dotting China's Zhongnan Mountain range. These peaks have reputedly been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago. It was widely thought that the tradition was all but wiped out, but this film emphatically and beautifully shows us otherwise. One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these elusive practitioners, American director Edward Burger is able, with humor and compassion, to present their tradition, their wisdom, and the hardship and joy of their everyday lives among the clouds.

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BAG IT
Director: Suzan Beraza

Try going a day without plastic. In this touching and often flat-out-funny film, we follow “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. What starts as a film about plastic bags evolves into a wholesale investigation into plastic's effects on our oceans, environment, and bodies. We see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up to us...and what we can do about it.

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BHUTAN: Taking The Middle Path To Happiness
Director: Tom Vendetti

Imagine a country where happiness is the guiding principle of government. Imagine a people who see all life as sacred and the source of their happiness, a place with an abundance of clean and renewable energy, a nation committed to preserving its culture and whose progress is measured by obtaining Gross National Happiness for its people. Where is this Shangri-La? Bhutan. But can a place like Bhutan really exist? Can such ideals be realized? Can this small, geographically isolated country tucked away in the Himalayans truly protect its environment and culture as they open their doors to the West? The answer is rooted in the Bhutanese view of the world, anchored in Buddhism, with the simple message that happiness can only be found by taking the middle path the path that balances the needs of man with the powerful spirits of nature. 

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BORN SWEET
Director: Cynthia Wade

Arsenic-laced water has poisoned a 15-year old Cambodian boy. He accepts his destiny to be sick for the rest of his life, until a chance to star in a karaoke video about the dangers of arsenic makes him wonder if he really knows his future.

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CLIMATE REFUGEES
Director: Michael P. Nash

This film is about what happens when an over populated world with lack of resources and a changing climate all collide with each other. An intersection of humanity that many are calling the greatest challenge mankind will ever face. If an "Inconvenient Truth" was about what causes climate change, this film is about what are the effects of climate change on our civilization.

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DIRT! THE MOVIE 
Director: Bill Benenson, Gene Rosow

DIRT! THE MOVIE is an astonishing, humorous and substantial look at the glorious and unappreciated ground beneath our feet. 

Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth s climate. Why do we humans ignore, abuse, and destroy our most precious living natural resource? Consider the results of such behavior: Mass starvation, drought, floods and global warming. 

Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, DIRT! THE MOVIE tells the story of humans trying to re-connect to dirt the living skin of the earth. Traveling from the vineyards of California to the plains of Kenya, DIRT! reveals how repairing our relationship with dirt can create new possibilities for all life on earth.

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DREAMLAND
Director: ÞORFINNUR GUÐNASON & ANDRI SNÆR MAGNASON

Dreamland is a film about a nation standing at cross-roads. Leading up to the country’s greatest economic crisis, the government started the largest mega project in the history of Iceland, to build the biggest dam in Europe to provide Alcoa cheap electricity for an aluminum smelter in the rugged east fjords of Iceland. Today Iceland is left holding a huge dept and an uncertain future.

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FIJI FIREWALKERS
Director: Tom Vendetti

Narrated by Grammy award-winner Paul Horn, FIJI FIREWALKERS explores Fiji's people, land and culture, with a special emphasis on the legendary firewalkers of Beqa Island. The program captures the voices of the Fijian people and the sights and sounds of their Pacific homeland. Rich in colorful, vibrant music and cultural tradition, FIJI FIREWALKERS chronicles the origin of a Polynesian people whose civilization dates back to 700 B.C. Ancient pottery-making techniques are still used today, as well as a village-wide fishing drive and kava and firewalking ceremonies. 

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FJORD
Director: Skule Eriksen

"The jury was captivated by this poem made of pictures not only because of the brilliant camera work, but also because of its special ability to tell a story without words." The Nærøyfjord and Geirangerfjord areas are considered to be among the most scenically outstanding fjord areas on the planet. The film FJORD is a personal interpretation of this unique landscape. The film has no dialogue.


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GASLAND
Director: Josh Fox

Gasland documents Josh's cross-country odyssey to find out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing - or fracking - is actually safe. As he interviews people who live on or around current fracking sites, Josh learns of things gone horribly wrong, from illness to hair loss to flammable water, and his inquiries lead him ever deeper into a web of secrets, lies, conspiracy, and contamination - a web that potentially stretches to threaten the New York Watershed. Unearthing a shocking story about a practice that is understudied and inadequately regulated, Gasland races to find answer about fracking before it's far too late.


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GENGHIS BLUES
Director: Roko Belic

Paul Pena heard a sound -- something intensely beautiful but disturbing at the same time -- coming from his short-wave radio. The sound was that of Tuvan throat-singers, a sound that changed his life forever and sent him on a journey across the world to a land unknown. In his search for harmony and the answer to a mystifying obsession, music helped Pena bridge two cultures.This Oscar®-nominated film is the story of a blind blues musician and his triumphant trek to the forgotten land of Tuva and the mysterious are of Khoomei, or throat-singing, a seemingly impossible form of singing that produces multiple vocal tones simultaneously. Paul Pena, who has played with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, T-Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker, Jerry Garcia, Muddy Waters and BB King, travels to Tuva to live among the descendants of Genghis Khan and compete in their triannual Khoomei contest.

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GET A JOB
Director: Brian Kohne

Hawaiian William (Willie K) is a former musician and now successful employment agent whose own career is jeopardized when, over the course of one week, he repeatedly fails to find work for Merton (Eric Gilliom), a lovable local boy who surfs everyday in a spot where there are no waves. William’s problems are compounded tenfold by his longtime bridal shop girlfriend, Laura (Carolyn Omine), who wants desperately to be married and chooses this particular week to achieve her goal at all costs. At week’s end, William finds himself jobless, homeless, carless, and girlfriendless... but more resolved than ever to make the tough choices needed to find lasting joy, love and fulfilment.


Heart of a Dragon Photo
Heart of a Dragon Poster

HEART OF A DRAGON
Director: Michael French

Over twenty years ago, Michael French flew with a film crew from Vancouver, British Columbia to Beijing and documented something quite extraordinary, a young man in a wheelchair accompanied by a few of his closest friends who, half-way through their around the Man in Motion World Tour, entered Beijing with over 1 million Chinese heralding his arrival as a hero. Why this man and why in China?

In that moment, "Heart of a Dragon" was born. And since then, French set off on his own personal journey to make a feature film about hope and dreams that captivated him and a million Chinese over two decades ago - a story of a man, Everyman, who, in a test of his own self endurance, discovers the true meaning of love, loyalty, friendship, the strength of the human spirit. 

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HOME
Director: Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Experience the wonderment of our world in a way that will enthrall, captivate and inspire you! Award-winning aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and narrator Glenn Close take you on a spectacular voyage around the world in Home, a unique film with such breathtaking imagery, you’ll want to enjoy it time and time again.

Go To SELECTED FILMS for 2012 (I - Z)


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