documentaries

Emma Crimmings

Australia | 2003 | 52mins | Beta | Colour

Tony Wood and Lee Matthews are an upwardly mobile, gay male Melbourne couple. After 13 years together they wanted to have a child, but not by sharing parenting with a lesbian couple. Legally prevented in Victoria from adopting a baby, accessing IVF facilities, or entering into a commercial surrogacy arrangement, Tony and Lee's determination to become parents took them to Iowa, where surrogacy is legal for gay couples.

Filmmaker Emma Crimmings accompanies them to Cedar Rapids for the birth and becomes acquainted, as they do, with the surrogate mother and her family. By staying close to the personal stories of the two wannabe fathers and the woman who helps them out (for a significant financial reward), Crimmings calmly and delicately explores the ethical and emotional minefield of commercial surrogacy.

Crimmings is less directly concerned with the political debate regarding gay marriage, but there's plenty in her film to challenge or to reinforce any number of opinions on the subject.

German Kral

Germany | 2004 | 88mins | 35mm | Colour | Subtitled

The film tells the story of the formation of the band. It accompanies the musicians through their rehearsals and recordings of a number of Cuban classics, as well as through their search for new songs and their own style as a band. At the end they all go on a trip to a huge concert in Tokyo, where their band 'The Sons of Cuba' is finally born.

At the same time the film is also an authentic journey trough the real lives of these incredibly talented young musicians. How do they live? What does traditional Cuban music mean to them? How do they see life in Havana today? What are their dreams? And even Pío Leiva opens up his soul and tells us true stories about his first love and other moving moments from his long life.

'Música Cubana' is a film about traditional and modern music in Cuba today. But it is also a journey into this very special and passionate country. A journey into its music and into the hearts of its people, equally full of passion, love and hope.

Vivek Bald

USA| 2003 | 77mins | Beta | Colour and Black & White

Combining music documentary and social documentary, Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music charts the meteoric rise of Asian music in 1990s Britain, as well as the decades of cultural cross-pollination and political struggle that led up to that historic moment.

Through its dynamic mix of live performances, candid interviews and seldom-seen archival footage, Mutiny presents the story of a generation that grew up in the 1970s and 80s, defining itself in an environment of racial violence while drawing strength from both British street culture and South Asian roots. The artists who emerged from this generation became some of the great-est innovators in British music, mixing the influences of their parents' cultures with electronica, hip-hop, reggae and punk.

Mutiny follows these musicians from their early forays in music and activism through their negotiation of record deals and press attention during the "Asian Underground" hype of the mid-1990s, to dealing with the loss of industry backing by the end of the decade. Outspoken and uncompromising, they remain in command throughout this fast-paced and uplifting film.