WATCH DOCS FESTIVAL 2011

BLOOD IN THE MOBILE

Watchable. One of several, recently, films highlighting the hypocrisy of gain-focused corporations. Nokia, just like any other mobile manufacturer, turns a blind eye to children slaving away in Congolese mineral mines and warlords exploiting their labour to fund wars waged for decades. Not that anyone cares. As soon as the lights went on, a girl sitting next to me, reached for her mobile.

I, on my humble part, solemnly pledge not to buy mobiles more often than absolutely necessary. As long as my old one keeps working...

VOL SPECIAL (SPECIAL FLIGHT)

Watchable. Another film confirming the all-known truth that the world is divided into the privileged and the deprived. Where you're born determines your fate as the rich will always protect themselves from an influx of the poor in order to maintain their standard of living. The film is very moving, I was sobbing throughout, still it offers no solution.

PROSECUTOR

Watchable. How to combat crime and prevent it at the same time? A film showing how the circle of violence keeps rolling and highlighting human inability to put an end to it.

ALL WHITE IN BARKING

Watchable. A mildly amusing story of overcoming predjudices, yet with serious undertones - our race is being conquered.

COMPRAR, TIRAR, COMPRAR (LIGHT BULB CONSPIRACY)

Recommended. What some people know and many suspect is that modern devices have in-built faults shortening their lifespan the same way nylon thights have been made so prone to damage you're forced to keep buying new. What hardly anyone realises is that in the US there's a 100-year-old lightbulb shown 24/7 online which has outlived 3 cameras already and that in their beginnings nylon thights were advertised as strong enough to tow a car. At the same time the third world is becoming the planet's dumpster.

One more movie convincing me to stick to old stuff. No need to replace something as long as it works. You don't need a new mobile phone every 3 months, do you?

HONK!

Recommended. Death penalty is a perennial for documentarists. This film goes remarkably deep showing, among others, a wrongly accused man released from the death row, a family who's witnessed an execution, a preacher comparing the capital punishment to sending soldiers to the frontline. The ex-convict mentions an inmate who, refusing to get killed, overdosed drugs, was taken to hospital, got detox saving his life only in order to become forcefully executed a few hours later. Certainly some food for thought.

THE WAR GAME

Recommended. A based-in-science mockumentary about a nuclear attack on Britain. Clearly overlooked in 1960s.

CRIME AFTER CRIME

Watchable. If you thought it's easy for a murderer to get released from prison, this one's for you. A sex slavery victim kills her oppressor and ends up in the merciless penitentiary system. The film lacks a bite which would render the subject better.

ZAI YI QI (TOGETHER)

Watchable. About the stigma attached to the ill with AIDS. Shot in China, could be anywhere. Too philosophic for my taste, yet asking some unusual questions like: would you still love someone who has infected you?

AU BORD DU FLEUVE, A LA FRONTIERE SINO-COREENNE (RETURN TO THE BORDER)

Watchable. Nothing much is happening on the border. The best part of the movie is the final trip through North Korea: no cars, all people carrying some heavy packs, monumental architecture which may one day become a tourist attraction, provided the regime falls.

THE CARRIER

Watchable. The hypocrisy of male chauvinists can be truly astounding. In my opinion the film is too slow-paced which diminishes its impact.

WOMEN ARE HEROES

Watchable. An interesting artistic idea, especially the one with a train changing faces on the posters, comes combined with life stories of some incredible, strong women. An uplifting film which won't change anything long-term but may give some temporary strength to the underdog of the world - women.

BURZYNSKI. CANCER IS GREAT BUSINESS

Recommended again. It watches like a thriller.

Thankfully, as I learnt in the meeting with Dr. Burzynski, most of the presented problems are a thing of the past. Now, not only have survival rates increased, in case of some cancers, to 50 or 60%, the biggest challenge seems to be getting the life-saving medication registered in Poland. Good news is that the prerequisite genome tests are going to be getting cheaper and cheaper (now being at 5000 euros). Dr. Burzynski himself struck me as a perpetual optimist - surely that's how he's survived several decades of struggle against all sorts of authorities in both countries.

Since the time I saw this movie I've been having an impression that what's happening in the AIDS business is similar to cashing on cancer. If it's possible to keep the retrovirus in check by means of daily doses of medication taken till the end of one's life it must be possible to destroy it altogether just as well but for pharmaceutical companies it would mean a drastic drop in profits.

MANGROVE

Watchable. A slow-paced film made to help you unwind. Other than that, nothing new in the storyline or the visual form.