2011 Short Documentary Movies

18 movies found (page 1/1):

Born to Be Wild(2011)

3.6/5 (with 30 votes)

Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.

Directed by David Lickley - With Morgan Freeman, Birutė Galdika, Daphne Sheldrick

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God is the Bigger Elvis(2012)

37min | Documentary

3.3/5 (with 5 votes)

Dolores Hart left a successful Hollywood acting career to become a nun. A true story.

Directed by Rebecca Cammisa - With Dolores Hart

They Were There(2011)

30min | Documentary

2.3/5 (with 2 votes)

What does it mean to be an IBMer? Every employee experiences the company in different ways, but the global impact IBM has made on business and society over the last 100 years gives us all a common framework. "They Were There" is told by first-hand witnesses—current and retired employees and clients—who were there when IBM helped to change the way world works.

Directed by Errol Morris

The Universal Language(2011)

31min | Documentary

4.0/5 (with 1 vote)

The Universal Language is a new documentary from Academy Award-nominated director Sam Green (The Weather Underground). This 30-minute film traces the history of Esperanto, an artificial language that was created in the late 1800s by a Polish eye doctor who believed that if everyone in the world spoke a common tongue, humanity could overcome racism and war. Fittingly, the word “Esperanto” means “one who hopes.” During the early 20th century, hundreds of thousands of people around the world spoke Esperanto and believed in its ideals. Today, surprisingly, a vibrant Esperanto movement still exists. In this first-ever documentary about Esperanto, Green creates a portrait of the language and those who speak it today that is at once humorous, poignant, stirring, and ultimately hopeful.

Directed by Sam Green - With Arika Okrent, Humphrey Tonkin, Renato Corsetti, Leo Sakaguchi

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom(2011)

39min | Documentary

3.3/5 (with 4 votes)

On 11 March 2011, an earthquake caused a tsunami to hit the Tōhoku (Northeast) region of Japan. In this film, survivors of the tsunami rebuild as cherry blossom season begins. The film is a stunning visual haiku about the ephemeral nature of life–and of the healing power of Japan's most beloved flower.

Directed by Lucy Walker

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement(2011)

25min | Documentary, History

2.5/5 (with 2 votes)

The film features 85-year-old Mr. Armstrong, an African American barber in Birmingham, Alabama, as he experiences the manifestation of an unimaginable dream: the election of the first African American president. This colorful and courageous activist of the Civil Rights era casts his vote, celebrates Obama's victory and proudly unfurls the American flag as he is inducted into the Foot Soldiers Hall of Fame. Mr. Armstrong links the magnitude of the present paradigm shift with challenges he faced in the past: from his sons' integration into an all white school to the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights. The documentary raises questions about democracy and patriotism in the face of adversity, and the vigilance and action required to ensure continued forward movement to end racial injustice.

Directed by Gail Dolgin

Derailments(2011)

11min | Documentary

Frederico Fellini's unmade film ll Viaggio di G. Mastorna Detto Fernet became a graphic novel, just before Fellini's death in 1993. This is the story of how that came to be, as told by long time Fellini collaborator and illustrator for ll Viaggio di G. Mastorna, Milo Manera. Combining still photography and moving images, the piece which was produced in conjunction with Fabrica, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. The short is anchored by an interview with Milo Minara shot entirely in stills. The interview discusses his personal take on the main existentialist themes of the book; this interview has been intercut with the actual graphic novel and what appears to be the lost footage (via recreation) of the story's first scene. This short doc is an exploration into dreams and fantasy, moving through different realities. Shot between Milan, Italy and Koln, Germany.

Directed by Chelsea McMullan

Maestra(2012)

34min | Documentary, History

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

Directed by Catherine Murphy

The Fuse: or How I Burned Simon Bolivar(2011)

6min | Documentary

Using personal home video footage, this documentary follows how a young boy's attempts to avoid a poor mark on a school assignment in 1990's Sarajevo, may have contributed to a civil war.

Directed by Igor Drljaca

The Rhythm of My Life: Ismael Sankara(2011)

20min | Documentary

0.5/5 (with 1 vote)

Follows in an unconventional way the journey of 'ISH', a former Miami based rapper, who traveled to Africa to visit family. Little did he know that Libreville Gabon would be the place where the project of his dreams would fall on his laps. Against all expectations the alchemy born between him and 2 local beat-makers would lead to the making of a potential first album. Written and Directed by Marc A. Tchicot and Franck A. Onouviet, the film captures glimpse of great encounters and musical moments between people from opposite backgrounds driven by the same passion: music. 'The Rhythm of my life' belongs to the new generation of short films, which combine fiction and documentary style. Deeply grounded in the line of non formatted and guerrilla style independent projects, the rhythm of my life set a different direction for film-making in Gabon and Africa.

Incident in New Baghdad(2011)

22min | Documentary

2.5/5 (with 2 votes)

U.S. Army veteran Ethan McCord recounts his life-changing experiences at the scene of one of the most notorious events of the Iraq War: the slaying of two Reuters journalists, along with a group of mostly unarmed men, on the streets of Baghdad by American attack helicopters in July 2007.

Directed by James Spione

ORA(2011)

10min

2.9/5 (with 2 votes)

Dancer in three dimensions and glowing from the inside.

Directed by Philippe Baylaucq

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Dams: The Lethal Water Bombs(2011)

21min | Documentary

3.0/5 (with 1 vote)

Documentary short about the disastrous dangers of aging, ailing dams.

Directed by Sohan Roy

Chernobyl.3828(2011)

27min | Documentary, History

Military people call such places "FRONTLINE", liquidators who worked at the Chernobyl nuclear station called it "ROOF COATING". It was the most contaminated, and therefore the most dangerous, place in the zone. The remains of the roof coating of the 4th reactor. The operation on decontaminating the roof lasted more than five months. We will tell about only two days. About the most important two days in the life of an explorer - dosimetrist Valeriy Starodumov. He participated in this operation until it was over. He himself came out to the roof and led people there. He himself planted the "victory banner" at the level of 75 meters, as the signal for the zone: the roof coating has been decontaminated! Now, 25 years later, Valeriy Starodumov comes back to the zone. Now Chernobyl is a tourist object. But not for him...

Directed by Serhiy Zabolotny

Dilli(2011)

25min | History, Documentary

DILLI is a moving collection of heartfelt interviews with Delhi slum dwellers. Its lens focuses on a group of dwellers, bringing to life the untold story of mass exodus of thousands who were bulldozed from their homes and transferred to a makeshift facade - Bawana without water, shelter or drainage, while the city was being beautified for Commonwealth Games 2010. DILLI - city of dreams - is a universal story of millions of underprivileged around the world. DILLI holds up a mirror not only to India, but to every nation around the world, whose poor live forgotten under bridges, children go hungry, and fathers work thousands of miles from their families to provide. DILLI brings awareness. And awareness is the first step towards action.

Marfil(2011)

30min | Documentary

The first filmmaker arrived in Equatorial Guinea in 1904. The last movie theatre closed in Malabo in the 1990s. In 2011, during the II African Film Festival of Equatorial Guinea, the Marfil Movie Theatre reopened its doors. Florencio, Ángel and Estrada tells us how cinema has been, and is still, present in their lives.

Directed by Rubén Monsuy

Wild Sky(2011)

42min

0.5/5 (with 1 vote)

A hospital room, a drip... At his sick father's bedside, in a final, silent showdown, Rachid B. recalls his strongest memories, those which, in the course of his life constructed him or drove him to the worst. From his childhood in Morocco to recollections of his homosexuality and rejection of Christianity, right up to his recent conversion to Islam, he gives an honest account of his life, his wanderings, and the splits that have marked it.

Directed by Rachid B.

We Want What's Ours(2011)

19min | Documentary

Loss, resistance, identity and the elusiveness of justice as experienced by the Ndolila family in their quest to get back their family land stolen by the apartheid government in 1973.