Your Guide to the Documentary Edge Film Festival 2015

Speechless: the Polar Realm is a stunning foray into the Polar regions of both the Southern and the Northern Hemispheres. The visual essay was filmed by Richard Sidey over 10 years and, judging from the trailer, it will be nothing short of a mind-blowing experience to watch.

As stipulated by the title, the film lacks narration, instead the beautiful sights are accompanied by a bespoke score composed by Miriama Young and performed by Mirabai Peart and Ryan Francesconi.

The Documentary Edge Film Festival will be hosting the world premiere of Speechless and I recommend you snap up some tickets, because if there’s one film you have to see on the big screen, this is it. This is sadly likely to be the only chance most us will have to witness the beauty of some of the most fragile environments in the world.

Trends make the fashion world go round. They drive economies, dictate your outfits and produce multitudes of homogenous Tumblr feeds and Behance projects. But where do they come from? It’s a chicken and egg type of scenario to try and figure out—do trends result from the desires of the people, or does somebody decide on the next big thing and make it covetable for the masses? Trend Beacons interviews some of the biggest experts in the field for insights into the mystery of this cultural and consumerist phenomenon.

National Diploma shows what happens when a system fails the people it was designed to serve, leaving them to either give up or take matters into their own hands. A group of students from Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo chose to do the latter.

After being expelled from class for failing to engage in routine bribery of the teachers, the students pool resources to rent a house and set up a makeshift study dormitory in the lead up to the National Diploma exams. The results of the exams have the power to make or break their future aspirations in a very real way. It’s an eye-opening insight into the problems faced by education systems not only in the Congo, but around the world.

If you grew up in a small town chances are you have, at some point, moaned and complained about the place being a ‘dump’, or there being nothing to do. I know I did, stuck in the throes of suburban teenagehood.Well, Something Better to Come is a film that will help put things in perspective. The filmmaker, Hanna Polak, spent 14 years developing this documentary that tracks the life of Yula—a girl who lives in the largest rubbish dump in Europe. The Svalka, situated near Moscow, is as desolate a place as one would imagine. But what looks like the setting for a post-apocalyptic film, is home to an entire community of people. Yula was born here, but she hopes to leave and begin a better life. An ambition further complicated by her newborn baby. A fascinating story shot by a respectful and sensitive director —don’t miss it.

Documentary festivals are great at opening our eyes to important ongoing issues happening around the world, but let’s face it—it can all get a bit overwhelming. We all need a spot of good news from time to time. Thankfully, The Hip Op-eration Crew is here to inject some humour, joy and mischief into the Documentary Edge Festival.

This documentary follows the world’s oldest hip-hop crew, led by the irrepressible Billie Jordan, from Waiheke to the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in Las Vegas. Their motto is RHY—Respect and Honour and Youth—and their average age is 80. Get ready to laugh, cry, cheer and have your moves put to shame by 90 year olds. The Hip Op-eration Crew proves that age is no barrier to trying new things, challenging yourself and having a blast while doing it.

This film tells such a fantastical story it’s difficult to believe that it’s a documentary. In fact, the synopsis almost sounds like the start of a familiar kind of joke: a Palestinian, an Italian and a Syrian walk into a bar…Except that they are undertaking a very different kind of trip.

Five Palestinians and Syrians made the notorious journey to Italy’s island of Lampedusa to escape the war in Syria. They meet a Palestinian poet and an Italian journalist in Milan, who offer to help to get them to their destination in Sweden. Problem: how to avoid being caught and accused of being smugglers?

The solution the group came up with is ingenious. Invite a bunch of friends to come along and fake a wedding (of course). Not only did they make the risky journey, a feat in itself, but they filmed it too. On the Bride’s Side shows the great things humans are capable of, if we swap prejudice and fear for empathy and creativity. Can’t wait to see this one.

We’ve all heard of Elvis impersonators, but an Obama impersonator?

If there is a country where you can make a living impersonating the president, it’s the U.S of A. This fascinating debut by filmmaker Ryan Murdock follows Louis Ortiz, a Puerto Rican middle-aged, unemployed single dad from the Bronx, as he uses his likeness to Obama to rise to fame in an unlikely way. Riding the wave of the 2012 election campaign, he scores gigs performing satirical debates for Republican audiences, meeting Bill Clinton and Mitt Romney impersonators along the way.

Bronx Obama highlights the struggles of many ordinary Americans to make ends meet, and the lengths someone is willing to go to to score the illusive 15 minutes of fame—even if it means giving up their identity.

Photography is a powerful tool that can hold the powers that be accountable, document the realities of daily life that can easily slip the radar and connect us with places far away. Photography was banned in Afghanistan during the five years Taliban held power. That’s a big deal. No photos equals no documentation, no proof, no ability to tell the story of a nation.

Frame by Frame follows four photojournalists who are committed to establishing a free press at a time when foreign forces are being withdrawn and their country, devastated by years of conflict, will otherwise be forgotten by a global mass media driven by sensationalism. This promises to be a compelling film—not to be missed.