2010 Films
Thirty-four documentaries comprise the 2010 Salem Film Fest, presented at CinemaSalem in Salem, Massachusetts, making it the largest documentary festival in New England. Half of the filmmakers will be attending and dialoging before and after their films, making for a truly unique and powerful cinematic experience. Browse through the film descriptions below to find films to match your passions or open up new windows on the world.
There are two venues for most screenings, the MAIN THEATER (capacity 160), and the SCREENING ROOM (capacity 20). There is also a special showing of Building 173 at the nearby Peabody Essex Museum (P.E.M.) in the Morse Auditorium.
indicates that the filmmaker will be attending
indicates that the film is a premiere
70 min - China, USA
Directed by Les Blank, Gina Leibrecht
In Les Blank’s most recent work, the first shot on video, world-renowned American tea importer David Lee Hoffman journeys to remote regions of China in search of the finest handmade teas in the world.
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77 min - USA
Directed/Produced by Harrod Blank
What if you could morph your car into a mobile work of art, and drive it down the road for all to see?
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31 min - USA
Directed/Produced by Les Blank
SCREENING ROOM
The great Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins is captured brilliantly by Les Blank in this deeply moving 1969 film which reveals Lightnin's inspiration and features a generous helping of classic blues.
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77 min - Canada
Directed/Produced by Rosie Dransfeld
For the down-and-out residents of Edmonton's grim and unforgiving inner city, pawnbroker David Woolfson is a banker of last resort.
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90 min - Thailand via Netherlands
Directed by Mark Verkerk
A chance to revisit the characters from the 2008 SFF Audience Award winner BUDDHA'S LOST CHILDREN.
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52 min - China
Directed by Charlotte Mikkelborg, Petter Eldin
A building is a volume of human history, holding within its pages the stories and secrets of generations.
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94 min - Amazon
Directed/Produced by Les Blank
For nearly five years, German filmmaker Werner Herzog desperately tried to complete one of his most ambitious and difficult films, FITZCARRALDO, the story of one man's attempt to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle.
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92 min - Japan
Directed by Louis Psihovos
In the 1960s, Ric O'Barry trained dolphins for the television series "Flipper."
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82 min - N/A
Directed by Robert Murray
This inconvenient truth about the devastating effect of over fishing on the world's ecosystems challenges us to imagine a world without fish… period.
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90 min - Congo via Netherlands
Directed by Renzo Martens
SCREENING ROOM
An investigation into the emotional and economic value of Africa's most lucrative export: filmed poverty.
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67 min - Mali
Directed by Kathi von Koerber
SCREENING ROOM
An exciting visual narrative accompanied by a diverse musical score.
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51 min - USA
Directed/Produced by Les Blank
SCREENING ROOM
Les Blank's lip-smacking foray into the history, consumption, cultivation and culinary/curative powers of the stinking rose.
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90 min - USA
Directed by Arne Johnson, Shane King
At Rock 'n' Roll Camp, girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are taught that it's OK to sweat like a pig, scream like a banshee, wail on their instruments with complete and utter abandon, and that "it is 100% okay to be exactly who you are."
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70 min - Kenya
Directed/Produced by Jeremy Levine, Landon Van Soest
GOOD FORTUNE explores how international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the communities they aim to benefit.
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58 min - Nepal via Netherlands
Directed by Mark Verkerk
For the past three years, the Dutch
journalist Bernice Notenboom has focused on reporting from the world’s climate
change hot spots — the Arctic and Antarctic — as well as getting climate change
discussed in schools.
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