Encounters 2009 Offers Everything from Spirituality to Activism and More

Rough Aunties Fight Child Abuse and Daniel Anker Shows Music from the Inside Out

Encounters Documentary Festival is South Africa’s premier film festival – each year the festival brings you world premiers, award winning films, and once-off screenings you can’t afford to miss. So grab a program, make your picks and head down to the Fest today!

For a complete outline of the Encounters events taking place in Cape Town, read our overview of the 2009 Encounters Documentary Film Festival.

17:00 – Music From The Inside Out
USA 2008 90min
Dir: Daniel Anker

Nominated for an Academy Award in 2000 (Scottsboro: An American Tragedy - Best Feature Documentary), Anker’s point in this beautifully crafted ode to music is simple – what is the essence of music and how does its powerful driving force shape and influence the people who make up the Philadelphia Orchestra?

The film follows the company on tour through Europe and China and, through a number of pivotal symphonies, draws out an explanation about the transcendental power of music.

17:30 - Rough Aunties
UK 2008 103min
Dir: Kim Longinotto

Child abuse is not an easy subject to digest, let alone watch a film about. But this remarkable, gut wrenching, yet uplifting documentary about a group of resolute, tough, outspoken, fervent and endlessly compassionate women reveals both the worst and the best of human kind.

Despite crippling personal tragedies, these five exceptional women battle on, learning, growing and bringing comfort and hope to those children that have little of either.

20:00 - Fierce Light: when spirit meets action
Canada 2008 97min
Dir: Velcrow Ripper

Velcrow Ripper is a social agitator and filmmaker who, after the death of a close friend at the hands of the Mexican police during the Free Trade riots, questions his activist path in life.

Behind Ripper’s film is the central question – can spirituality and action converge, and his answer is a resounding yes, highlighting as he does Gandhi’s ‘soul force’ and ‘human sunrise,’ as well as the new ethos of activism: do not oppose, propose, be the revolutionary not the rebel.

We regret to inform you that Ripper has cancelled his attendance at the Festival due to an injury. His Master Class on sound, scheduled for Saturday 11th, 9am as well as the Q&A’s after the screening of his film have all been cancelled. The screenings of the film will go ahead as scheduled.

20:15 – The Champagne Spy (Meragel Ha-Shampaniya)
Germany / Israel 2007 90min
Dir: Nadav Schirman

He believed his cover, became it, loved it, forsook his real life and could not readapt to an unexceptional life once it was all over.

Schirman’s film, a surprisingly frank and detailed account of espionage in the 60s, is as much a poignant personal story as it is a look behind the Mossad curtain.

*Tickets can be purchased online on the Encounters website or at the V&A Waterfront box office

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