archive, 22nd aiff 2016, stranger than fiction | AIFF • Athens International Film Festival

Athens International Film Festival

Archive : 22nd AIFF 2016 : Stranger Than Fiction

Archive : 22nd AIFF 2016

Stranger than Fiction
Fascinating, odd, bizarre and attractive images of a varied world, amazing everyday stories which any gifted scriptwrited would envy, revealing looks at contemporary reality, all captured in the documentaries of this section.
Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America
The African-American pianist Daryl Davis, who has performed with legendary artists like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, has a dream. For the last twenty years he goes around the United States, befriending high-ranking Ku Klux Klan members, in the belief that he will manage to change their views. Will he be able, though, to convince black activists of his weird hobby, when they watch as their brothers are getting shot at in the streets by members of the police force? An unbelievable true story that emphatically reminds us how complex human nature can really be.
Check it
Hunted down, beaten down, shot at. The ghetto streets in the US capital were the most hostile to the LGBTQ community until a handful of gay and trans people decide to take matters into their own hands. Armed and dangerous, yet stylish and aglitter, the "Check It" gang has now more than 200 members and goes out to the streets of Washington to teach a lesson to any homophobic little bastard. Is this gang enough for its members to have a claim on a better life, though?
Dancer
When ballet becomes rock 'n' roll: Sergei Polunin, who dazzled us in the viral video for "Take Me to Church", became the enfant terrible of the ballet world when he abandoned his position as lead soloist twice, rebelling against the classical dance status quo. How high is the price you pay for perfection?
David Lynch: The Art Life
With the help of semi-lit underground rooms, cigarette smoke, violent colour strokes onto white canvasses and a vintage microphone, David Lynch revisits his past and the otherworldly experiences that shaped him as an artist. In an almost dream-like documentary he could have shot himself, the Festival's favourite director allows us to listen to his personal stories, which are far weirder than his films. Now, it's dark...
De Palma
For many years, critics loved to hate him, the audiences adored him and his films became the definition of a guilty pleasure. Five decades after the beginning of his career, Hitchcock's most loyal follower and the master of some of the most skillful films ever created reveals himself (holding nothing back) in front of the camera of two famous fans of his: directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow.
The Last Resort
Co-directed by Thanos Anastopoulos, who crosses over into the documentary genre with remarkable ease, the documentary that charmed Cannes humorously and insightfully shows us the way to the strangest beach in the world. There, a wall separates the female bathers from the male ones, thus addressing identity and discrimination issues and awakening historical memories. This feels like the last border of innocence in a Europe that entrenches itself raising walls, mostly around its own conscience.
Life, Animated
Three-year old Owen suddenly "disappears" into himself. The doctors' diagnosis? Autism. The story -thankfully- takes a cinematic turn, when the little boy literally finds his voice through Disney classics and starts communicating with his family and the rest of the world this way. From Oscar-winning Roger Ross Williams, and with Simba, Peter Pan, Ariel and Jafar at the service of humanity, prepare for the most moving documentary you'll see this year, which won the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Orange Sunshine
If you were around in the 1960s experimenting with psychotropic substances, a little orange pill promised to offer you the most unforgettable hallucinogenic trip. The young hippies that discovered it called it Orange Sunshine, distributed it worldwide and became the targets of an international manhunt for their arrest. Today, they talk freely about their romantic and dangerous utopia, and become the tour guides for a revealing trip back to the raving years of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.
Rocco
His mother wanted him to become a priest. In the end -and with her blessing!- he became the ultimate porn industry star, dedicating his life to one single God: lust. In this revealing -in more ways than one- documentary, the infamous Rocco Siffredi invites us to revisit the beginning of his career, meet his wife and children, and of course peek behind the scenes at his films' shoots. Like "Boogie Nights", only this time in a documentary.
The Cherry Orchard, Mickey Mouse and Nikos Karathanos
What is it like to film, from its very first rehearsal, the unorthodox and deeply touching staging of "The Cherry Orchard" by Nikos Karathanos and watch as today's Greece is unfolded before your eyes, without any hint of didacticism? Elias Giannakakis and Apostolia Papaioannou are the most fitting pair to capture the unprecedented experience of artistic creation on camera.
The Lovers and the Despot
The following story could have been a product of the most insane imagination, if it wasn't absolutely true: in the 1970s, an acclaimed South Korean director and the country's most famous star were kidnapped by their number one fan, none other than the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Il. You won't believe it until you see it.