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SA-produced docs in Oscar race
23/11/2007 11:51 - (SA)
Cape Town - Two documentaries produced for the South African coordinated Why Democracy? project are among 15 films from around the world short-listed in the Documentary Feature Category for the 2008 Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that the two films, Please Vote for Me, produced and edited in South Africa, and Taxi to the Dark Side are to be viewed by the Academy?s Documentary Branch members which will make known the final 5 nominations on January 22.
The Why Democracy? project is the world's largest ever factual media event, resulting in the production of 10 specially commissioned documentaries which have been flighted globally by over 40 broadcasters in the past two months.
Its objective was to spark a global conversation about democracy.
The project has been coordinated and run out of Cape Town by Steps International, a non-profit organisation of which South African documentary film maker Don Edkins is an executive producer. Edkins also produced Please Vote for Me.
Please Vote for Me is a film in which the director conducts an experiment in democracy by following the events around the election of a Grade 3 class monitor in a Chinese primary school.
'How democracy would be received in China'
While their parents coach them and strategise their campaigns, the children face their fears and their challengers in a no-holds-barred series of classroom debates.
Through betrayals, tears and laughter, the film reveals the hardships of the campaign and tries to determine how democracy, if it came to China, would be received.
Taxi to the Dark Side takes an in-depth look at the case of an Afghan taxi driver who is detained by US military at random and without trial.
The film is a definitive exploration of the introduction of torture as an interrogation technique in US facilities and the role played by key figures of the Bush administration in the process.
Edkins said: "We are very excited. It is an exceptional feat to have two films short-listed in the running for an Oscar nomination. Please Vote for Me, while set in China, was produced and edited in South Africa because of its sensitive nature."
All the Why Democracy? films have been flighted on SABC2 over the past month, including the two short-listed films.
The last film, For God, Tsar and Fatherland, about democracy in Russia will be shown on Saturday 24 November at 16:00 on SABC 2.
- News24
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South Africa
