Mercury Media

The War On Doping

Alice — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:59:09 +0000

Despite the probability of getting caught, professional athletes continue to be tempted to take chemical shortcuts to cheat their way to victory, fame and fortune.

Anti-doping hunter Professor Arne Ljungqvist provides insight into high-profile scandals involving the use of banned performance-enhancing substances. Stories revisited include the Ben Johnson 1988 Olympics scandal and the ‘Balco’ affair. This shook American sport and led to a US Federal government investigation. Eyewitnesses recall tales from the Cold War when national doping experiments were strategically used to gain global political power via victories in sports.

Featuring commentary from athletes, anti-doping experts and government officials, The War On Doping exposes the high-stakes battle ahead of the upcoming London 2012 Olympics Games.

Availability: June 2012

*Available in HD

QPR: The Four Year Plan

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:24:03 +0000

In 2007 Queens Park Rangers Football Club, facing relegation and bankruptcy, was rescued by high-profile billionaires Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone, Lakshmi Mittal and Amit Bhatia.

Their vision: to take a community of reluctant fans, semi-talented players and a roster of ever-changing managers to Premiership glory. The new owners, risking ridicule and commercial failure, allowed cameras unprecedented access to record the roller-coaster ride.

Witness one of modern football’s most extraordinary tales as we see boardroom battles, clashing egos, and behind the scenes drama. Facing difficulties at every stage, the story culminates when QPR heroically win promotion to the Premier League after four turbulent and dramatic seasons.

*Available in HD

Festivals and Awards

Winner: Best Documentary, Marbella Film Festival 2011

Official Selection: IDFA 2011

Reviews

“Holds a mirror up to a sport which has become the plaything of not the occasional local millionaire, but multinational conglomerates of billionaires. The result is a documentary that offers both knockabout comedy and high drama, as enjoyable for the sports naysayer as for the football fan”
- Time Out London

“Dynamite… possibly the most vivid insight into the running of a football club yet committed to film”
- The Guardian

“Superb! The film that will shock football. The real star is Briatore who dominates the film like Tony Soprano, ready to terminate the employment of another hapless manager.”
- The Independent

“An absolute must-see”
- Daily Mail

“This terrific piece of television could have passed for a high-quality drama series, but it was real people in a real football club. Remarkable”
- Daily Mail

“A brilliant fly-on-the-wall documentary”
- The Sunday Times

End of The Road

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:16:02 +0000

In 2008 the world experienced financial turmoil. Markets around the world crashed, stock prices plummeted, and major financial institutions, once thought to be invincible, collapsed.

Governments responded quickly, issuing massive bailouts and stimulus packages in an effort to keep the world economy afloat. Although we’ve been told that these drastic measures prevented a total collapse of our system, a growing sense of unease still pervades.
What lies ahead as a result of these bold money printing measures? Was the financial crisis solved or were the problems merely kicked down the road?

End of The Road asks eleven influential commentators within the finance and investment communities to share their knowledge regarding where we are. Through each of their narratives, a story is built which chronicles the current economic dilemma and paints a gloomy picture of our likely financial future.

*Available in HD

Unfinished Spaces

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:50:56 +0000

In 1961, three young, visionary architects were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to build Cuba’s National Art Schools. Construction of their radical designs began immediately and the school’s first classes soon followed. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country revelled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution quickly became a reality, construction was abruptly halted. The architects and their designs were deemed irrelevant to the Revolution.

Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has since invited the exiled architects back to Cuba to finish their unrealised dream.

Composed primarily of archival footage and candid interviews with the architects themselves, Unfinished Spaces illustrates a nation’s evolution through the life of a single architectural project.

*Available in HD

Visit the official website

Festivals and Awards

Winner:
“Find Your Audience” Award, Independent Spirit Awards 2012
Jury Award, Salem Film Festival 2012
Special Jury Prize, San Diego Latino Film Festival 2012
Best Reportage, Montreal Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) 2012

Official Selection:
L.A. Film Festival 2011
Miami International Film Festival 2012
DocuWeeks 2011

Reviews

“An excellent documentary about a spectacular but unfinished architectural project that strongly reflects the arc of the Cuban experience of the past 60 years. Lucidly filmed… an absorbing film”
- Hollywood Reporter

“Elegantly traces the brief heyday and dark period of Cuba’s Art Schools”
- Variety

“Extraordinary, fast-moving, and engagingly dense documentary”
- Screen International

“A fascinating tale of visionary aesthetics and… sublime structures”
- The Wall Street Journal

“”A witty survey (and dismantling) of Cuban politics…”
- Village Voice

War Don Don

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:44:34 +0000

In the heart of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, United Nations soldiers guard a heavily fortified building known as the “special court.” Inside, Issa Sesay awaits his trial.

Prosecutors say Sesay is a war criminal, guilty of crimes against humanity. His defenders say he is a reluctant fighter who protected civilians and played a crucial role in bringing peace to the country.

War Don Don tells the story of a sensational trial with unprecedented access to prosecutors, defence attorneys, victims and from behind bars, Sesay himself. His alleged crimes are extensive and appalling, but some of the testimony against him comes from cooperating witness who are among the worst criminals in West Africa. The witnesses are paid, and not all of the proceedings are captured on public video. Can the Special Court provide a fair trial? International justice is on trial for the world to see.

Visit the official website

Festivals & Awards

Winner

Special Jury Award, SXSW Film Festival, 2010
First Merit Prize, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, 2010
Cinereach Award, Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York, 2010
Karen Schmeer Award for Excellence in Editing, Independent Film Festival Boston, 2010

Nominations
Outstanding Coverage of a News Story, News & Documentary Emmy Awards 2011
Outstanding Editing, News & Documentary Emmy Awards 2011

Official Selection

Human Rights Watch Film Festival London, 2010
AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival, 2010
Full Frame Documentary Festival, 2010
Mostra Internacional de Films de Dones, Barcelona, 2010
DokuFest Prizren Documentary Film Festival Kosovo, 2010
Movies That Matter Festival, The Hague, 2010
London International Documentary Festival, 2010
Taiwan International Documentary Festival, 2010
Camden International Documentary Festival, 2010

Reaction to U.S Broadcast Premiere on HBO, 29th Sept

War Don Don enjoyed a successful U.S Television Premiere when broadcast on HBO on the 29th September 2010. The U.S public took to popular microblogging site Twitter to express their enthusiasm for the film. Here are a selection of comments:

@chrispalm
Just spent a rainy afternoon watching War Don Don. One of the more thought provoking and educating documentaries I’ve seen in a while.

@thegr8_1
One of the more powerful documentaries I’ve ever watched: War Don Don.

@BlkWidow9
#NowWatching War Don Don. Just happened to turn to the most interesting documentary in a long time.

@EEKALYNX
watching #WarDonDon #HBO quite an interesting documentary.

@Martiannoelle
Can’t sleep, however War Don Don = Great documentary!!!

@aboutdocsguide
#WarDonDon on #HBO is a gripping must see courtroom documentary!

@punk_resist
Wow! People should watch this documentary. Its called “War Don Don” its about the rise and fall of the rebel leader in Sierra Leone. CRAZY!

@yogifresh
#WarDonDon… a must watch!

Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle For Expression

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:43:47 +0000

Out on the quiet city streets, in the pre-dawn hours, a battle is being waged. For decades, graffiti writers, street artists, and bill-posters have contended with police and city clean up crews. Now they have a new enemy: the obsessive and self-motivated lone vigilante. This new breed of crime-fighter now stalks the urban landscape.

Two filmmakers go undercover to expose anti-graffiti vigilantes who stop at nothing to rid their neighbourhoods and cities of street art, stickers, tags and posters. Yet several of these vigilantes have become the very menace they set out to eliminate. In their relentless attempt to stamp out graffiti, they’ve turned to illegally and destructively painting other people’s property.

Vigilante Vigilante sets out to expose these mysterious characters and discovers a battle of expression that stretches from the streets to academia.

Festivals & Awards

Official Selection
Goteborg Int’l Film Festival 2012
New Orleans Film Festival 2011
New Hampshire Film Festival 2011

Reviews

“Engaging… Entertaining… Nary a dull moment…”
- Variety

“Talk about a mind-blowing twist to the graffiti question”
- SF Gate

“Even Hollywood can’t cook up this kind of irony”
- SF Chronicle

Gilad and All That Jazz

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:17:34 +0000

Gilad Atzmon is one of modern music’s most respected musicians. He is also a controversial public opponent of Israel.

A gentle giant, warm, charismatic and somewhat shy, Gilad is a complex character. Born into a pro-Zionist family and serving briefly in the first Lebanon War, Gilad had a dramatic turnaround. He quit the army, picked up his sax and exiled himself to London, declaring himself an enemy of the Israeli state. Since then he has produced some of the modern era’s greatest Jazz albums.

The film follows Gilad in the most flourishing time of his career as he records with the Blockheads, gigs with Nigel Kennedy, and appears on TV programs and panel events all over the globe. At the same time he antagonises his critics to the point of receiving death threats.

Gilad and All That Jazz offers insight into the life, ideas, music and motivations driving the great Saxophonist.

*Available in HD

Festivals and Awards

Winner
Best Documentary, Logan Film Festival 2012

Official Selection
London International Film Festival 2012

The War On Democracy

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:16:47 +0000

BAFTA-winning journalist John Pilger examines the U.S. Government’s manipulation of Latin American politics.

Talking exclusively to American government officials, including agents who reveal for the first time on film how the CIA ran it’s operations in Latin America in the 80’s, the film shows how serial U.S. intervention, overt and covert, has toppled a series of legitimate governments in the Latin American region since the 1950s.

Pilger unearths the real story behind the attempted overthrow of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez in 2002 and how the people of the barrios of Caracas rose up to force his return to power.

The War On Democracy suggests that, far from bringing democracy to the world as it claims, the U.S. prefers Latin American countries to be led by people it approves first.

Festivals and Awards

Best Documentary Award, 2008 One World Awards, London

Reviews

“An extraordinary and fascinating documentary” - Empire Magazine

“A powerful piece” - Film Review

A People Uncounted

Alice — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:08:40 +0000

The Roma, commonly referred to as Gypsies, are outsiders who have been both romanticised and vilified in popular culture. Lacking the kind of social hierarchy and political power that could otherwise advocate collectively for their rights and tell their history, the Roma struggle with chronic poverty and disenfranchisement. They have endured centuries of intolerance and persecution in Europe - an estimated 500,000 were murdered during World War II.

Shot in 11 countries and featuring dozens of Roma - including Holocaust survivors, historians, activists and musicians - A People Uncounted documents their culturally rich yet often difficult lives and demonstrates how their present state has been shaped by the tragedies of the past.

As ethnic intolerance flares across Europe again, the film sheds light on this unique culture, placing the Romani story within a larger context of racism and genocide.

*Available in HD

Reviews

“Illuminating… offers a vivid mix of visual evidence, historical commentary and survivor testimonies” - Variety