Sweet Jam (2001)

An original portrayal of a small Czech village where – as the locals put it – an UFO has landed in the form of a kilometre-long silverish factory: a Korean Hyundai automobile plant. The village, hitherto famous mostly for its sauerkraut and the “Radegast” beer was thus turned into an industrial zone – the largest greenfield investment project in the Czech Republic’s history. Nonetheless, for a long time many farmers resisted selling the land upon which the factory was now standing. Eventually, they all succumbed under the pressure from the neighbours, and even the anonymous death threats. The filmmakers returned to Nošovice two years after the dramatic property buyouts, at the time when the factory has just started churning out cheap cars. Combining the perspectives of seven characters, they have composed a portrayal of a place suddenly changed beyond recognition that is playful and chilling at the same time: a politically engaged absurd flick about a field that yields cars.

A team of journalists investigate how human trafficking and child labor in the Ivory Coast fuels the worldwide chocolate industry. The crew interview both proponents and opponents of these alleged practices, and use hidden camera techniques to delve into the gritty world of cocoa plantations.

A detailed look at the gradual decline of Shenyang’s industrial Tiexi district, an area that was once a vibrant example of China’s socialist economy. But industry is changing, and the factories of Tiexi are closing. Director Wang Bing introduces us to some of the workers affected by the closures, and to their families.

Charles Duchemin, a well-known gourmet and publisher of a famous restaurant guide, is waging a war against fast food entrepreneur Tri- catel to save the French art of cooking. After having agreed to appear on a talk show to show his skills in naming food and wine by taste, he is confronted with two disasters: his son wants to become a clown rather than a restaurant tester and he, the famous Charles Duchemin, has lost his taste!

De maneira totalmente inesperada e bizarra, Waring Hudsucker, presidente das super lucrativas Indústrias Hudsucker, comete suicídio se atirando do alto de seu próprio edifício. Ainda atordoada pelo acontecimento, a junta de diretores da empresa, comandada pelo inescrupuloso Sidney Mussberger, tem uma idéia brilhante: colocar um idiota qualquer na presidência da Companhia e fazer o preço das ações despencar, para depois comprar tudo de volta a preço de banana. O ingênuo e idealista Norville Barnes seria o perfeito "testa de ferro" para o plano, mas ninguém contava com a desconfiança da repórter Amy Archer, que começa a perceber que há algo de podre no reino da Hudsucker.

O diretor Morgan Spurlock decide ser a cobaia de uma experiência: se alimentar apenas em restaurantes da rede McDonald's, realizando neles três refeições ao dia durante um mês. Durante a realização da experiência o diretor fala sobre a cultura do fast food nos Estados Unidos, além de mostrar em si mesmo os efeitos físicos e mentais que os alimentos deste tipo de restaurante provocam.

Morgan Sullivan é um contador desempregado que vive no subúrbio ao lado de sua esposa dominadora. Sullivan é um homem pacato, que sonha em navegar livremente pelo mundo. Buscando uma saída para sua vida sem sentido, ele decide juntar-se à multinacional Digicorp para trabalhar como espião.

Karly se divide entre o amor de Zach e a ética no trabalho enquanto faz carreira em um dos mais populares setores da América do Norte: a indústria farmacêutica. Ela coloca um prazo de seis meses para renunciar ao emprego, o que não será tarefa fácil.

Josie (Rachel Leigh Cook), Valerie (Rosario Dawson) e Melody (Tara Reid) não se importam com o que está na moda ou o que é mais popular no momento. As três formam a banda Josie e as Gatinhas, fazem shows vestidas como gatas e estão mais interessadas em criar seu próprio estilo como banda de rock'n'roll. Um dia elas são descobertas por Wyatt Frame (Alan Cummings), um empresário musical que logo consegue para elas um contrato com a Mega Records e faz com que a banda se torne um sucesso nacional. Mas nem tudo são flores: Fiona (Parker Posey), que trabalha na Mega Records, pretende utilizar a banda para controlar a juventude da América através da música e, ao descobrir tais intenções, Josie e suas amigas farão de tudo para limpar seus nomes.

Os autores investigam a cadeia de produção dos alimentos nos EUA, desde a manipulação e o monopólio de grãos e cereais à criação e abate de animais para consumo, expondo a fragilidade dos organismos de fiscalização e os danos causados à sociedade.

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is the striking new documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes”—quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams—Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris.

Bastien, an ambitious young production assistant, catches the attention of Jean-Louis, a producer of high regard, and is granted a shot at his own television show.

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

Juan “Accidentes” Dominguez is on his biggest case ever. On behalf of twelve Nicaraguan banana workers he is tackling Dole Food in a ground-breaking legal battle for their use of a banned pesticide that was known by the company to cause sterility. Can he beat the giant, or will the corporation get away with it?

Obesity rates in the United States have reached epidemic proportions in recent years. Killer at Large shows how little is being done and more importantly, what can be done to reverse it. Killer at Large also explores the human element of the problem with portions of the film that follow a 12-year old girl who has a controversial liposuction procedure to fix her weight gain and a number of others suffering from obesity, including filmmaker Neil Labute.

Grierson set out to make "propaganda," and this film--with it's voice-over proclaiming the great value of the British industrial worker, without a hint of ambiguity or doubt--fits that category well. The authoritatarian narrator feels out-of-date and unsophisticated, but the footage is well shot and interesting, and the transparency of the propaganda aspect is almost a reflief at a time when so many films have hidden agendas.

“Showrunners” is the first ever feature length documentary film to explore the fascinating world of US television showrunners and the creative forces aligned around them. These are the people responsible for creating, writing and overseeing every element of production on one of the United State’s biggest exports – television drama and comedy series. Often described as the most complex job in the entertainment business, a showrunner is the chief writer / producer on a TV series and, in most instances, the show’s creator. Battling daily between art and commerce, showrunners manage every aspect of a TV show’s development and production: creative, financial and logistical.

From the Sea to the Land Beyond is a film about the British coast made from 100 years of our film heritage stored in the British Film Institute collection, edited by Penny Woolcock with a soundtrack by British Sea Power

For most of the world, consumption has been the unquestioned duty of every individual. Then garbage activist Annie Leonard brought her two-hour lecture to Free Range who helped her turn it into a 20-minute animated revolution. Shown in thousands of classrooms, endlessly blasted by Fox News, viewed more than 10 million times, The Store of Stuff finally opens the door to a serious cultural dialog about the costs of consumption.

The main events unfold in the train. The acceptance committee from Moscow, revealing deficiencies in the constructed bakery, did not sign the act of its delivery. But the fate of not only many people associated with the construction, but also the life of the town as a whole depends on this. Lyonya Shindin — a conscientious and decent man — is trying by all means and by any means to change the decision of the commission...