Hot Docs – Canada’s International Documentary Festival has announced their 2008 program which will include the screening of two Australian films.
Selected into the World Showcase section of the festival is Searching 4 Sandeep (d: Poppy Stockell). The film has already had great success domestically with screenings at the 2007 Brisbane and Melbourne International Film Festivals and the World Of Women Film Festival where it won the award for Best Documentary and the Audience Award.
Selected to screen in the Make Me A Believer program is the film Beyond Our Ken (d: Luke Walker, Melissa Maclean) which has also found success domestically with screenings at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival.
Hot Docs will take place from 17 – 27 April 2008
Beyond our Ken
(87 mins)
Production Company: Scribble Films
Director: Luke Walker and Melissa Maclean
Writer/Producer: Luke Walker
Distributor: Hopscotch
Synopsis
In this riveting and disturbing doc, filmmakers Luke Walker and Melissa Maclean obtain unprecedented access to a controversial Australian ‘spiritual enlightenment’ organization called Kenja. Founded in 1982 by leader Ken Dyers and partner Jan Hamilton, Kenja members and supporters claim that the group offers a Utopia where life’s purpose is defined, the human spirit discovered and the universe itself explained. Meanwhile, during its 25-year lifetime, Kenja has been derided in the media as a ‘secretive cult,’ and Ken described as a ‘seedy conman.’ Families blame the group for the disappearance of loved ones. As the people of Kenja prepare to defend themselves in the latest of several court cases, Ken and Jan invite the filmmakers into their spiritual enlightenment centre. Through remarkable vérité footage and candid interviews, Beyond Our Ken explores the anatomy and ambiguity of the cult enigma. We discover the extent to which environment defines our reality, a reality as fragile as the truth.
Searching 4 Sandeep
(55 min)
Production Company: Cecilia Ritchie Pty Ltd
Executive Producer: Amanda Duthie
Director/Writer: Poppy Stockell
Producer: Cecilia Ritchie
Consultant Producer: Megan McMurchy
Finance: ABC, JTV, Australian Film Commission
International Sales: Cecilia Ritchie Pty Ltd
Synopsis
Despite living in one of the gay capitals of the world, 28-year-old Sydneysider Poppy Stockell is forced online in her search for love. When she meets 31-year-old Anglo-Indian Sandeep Virdi, she thinks she’s found the one. Unfortunately, Sandeep lives at home in the British midlands with her conservative Sikh parents and three younger sisters. Oh, and she’s not out to any of them…Through raw, incredibly frank footage, Searching 4 Sandeep follows Poppy and Sandeep’s tumultuous relationship across two years and three continents.
[release from the AFC]
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