Two renowned British documentary film makers Nick Broomfield and Richard Leacock will be attending DocPoint 2009 Festival as honoured quests. The 8th DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival is taking place on the 20th – 25th of January 2009.

The 2009 programme includes a retrospective of Nick Broomfield’s work.
Broomfield’s early work followed in the footsteps of cinéma vérité, influenced by Frederick Wiseman and Richard Leacock. Later Broomfield’s style became more distinctive. The documentarist is known to contribute to his films by being in front of the camera as well as behind it. Later this style has been imitated by film makers such as Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore. The retrospective is a comprehensive review of Broomfield’s work.
The British censorship laws led Broomfield to work in the United States for most of his career. Since the 1990’s in his films Broomfield has focused mainly on various celebrities, including serial killer Aileen Wuornos, rap artist Tupac Shakur and a Neo-Nazi Leader Eugène Terre’Blanche.

Nick Broomfield retrospective at DocPoint 2009

His Big White Self (2006)
Biggie and Tupac (2002)
Fetishes (1996)
Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (1992) The Leader, His Driver and the Driver’s Wife (1991) Juvenile Liaison II (1990) Driving Me Crazy (1988) Behind the Rent Strike (1979) Juvenile Liaison I (1975)


One of the founders of cinéma vérité, Richard Leacock will also be attending DocPoint with his wife and co-film maker Valerie Lalonde.
DocPoint Festival will present Leacock documentary films in A Tribute to Richard Leacock programme.

Ever since his film debut at the age of 13 (Canary Bananas, 1935), Leacock has believed in showing the viewer the truest possible record of events.
During his career he has worked with legends such as Robert Flaherty, Robert Drew and D.A. Pennebaker, the co-founders of cinéma vérité. A Tribute to Richard Leacock includes among others A Musical Adventure in Siberia (2001), a film about an opera production in Russia, put together decades after it was banned by the authorities. At present Leacock and Lalonde are making an autobiographical documentary of Leacock’s honourable 74-year-long career.



DOCPOINT TRAVELS TO ITALY AND INDIA

Italy for Beginners is a programme of new Italian documentary films. The films show the regional and cultural diversity of the country, and are also quite political in their content. Biùtiful Cauntri (2007) links the infamous mafia with waste management, We Want Roses Too (2007) looks into how the sexual revolution in the 60’s and 70’s has influenced the society.
A Different Story (2008) ponders whether only one person can change the future of Sicily and How I Am (2007) describes an autistic adolescent’s experiences of the world around him.

India is famous for Bollywood, but Indian-made documentary is much more rarely to be seen. New India programme offers a selection of new Indian documentary films at DocPoint Festival 2009. These films give an idea of the current situation of the country and look into the changes taking place in the Indian society. Among others, King of India (2008) follows the life of a poor circus artist family, India Untouched – Stories of a People Apart (2007) examines the importance of caste in modern India, and Louis Malle’s Phantom India (1969) is an outsider view of an exotic country, that may serve as a point of reference to the more recent films.