You're reading: Six documentaries to watch during DocuDays film festival

International annual film festival DocuDays takes place on March 20-27 in Kyiv.

The festival is completely free. Apart from the film screenings it offers educational lectures on human rights.

All the
documentaries are shown in original language with English subtitles. Kyiv Post has picked six must-see films from the program.

Full program of DocuDays Festival


“Citizenfour”

This year one of the most famous documentaries presented at the festival
is Laura Poitras’s scandalous “Citizenfour.” It is based on Edward Snowden interview recorded in Hong-Kong that reveals illegal violations of privacy by
the U.S. National Security Agency. “Citizenfour” received critical acclaim and won an Oscar. The real-life thriller shakes the image of
world democracies and gives chills like a horror film.

Kyiv Cinema (19 Velyka Vasylkivska St.). March
25. 7 p.m.

“The Salt of the
Earth”

The son of
renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião
Salgado, famous for his pictures of victims of famine in Africa, Ribeiro
Salgado, released a film co-directed by Wim Wenders about his father’s journeys
around the world. His father was traveling to capture the conditions that people live in and visited more than 100 countries. The movie included videos filmed during 40 years
of traveling. “The Salt of the Earth” won a Special Prize at the Cannes Film
Festival in 2014 and was nominated for Best Documentary at 2015 Academy
Awards.

Kyiv Cinema (19 Velyka Vasylkivska St.) March 23. 9 p.m.

“Propaganda”

Director Christopher Murray is exploring the propaganda’s role in 2013
Chilean presidential campaign amid the massive social protests. In ingenious
and ironical manner director shows political propaganda in the most unexpected
places and reflects the rhetorics of candidates who frequently manipulate the
electorate. The cameras filming the protest from inside the crowd make the viewer
feel like part of it.

Budynok Kino (6 Saksahanskoho St.). March 22. 5 p.m.

Kinopanorama (19 Shota Rustaveli St.). March 23. 11
a.m.


“The Look of Silence”

Joshua Oppenheimer’s film focuses on a family that managed to survive
during the Indonesian genocide in the mid-1960s, but lost a son. These tragic
events took the lives of up to a million people, including suspected
Communists, ethnic Chinese and opponents to the military dictatorship that was ruling the country. People could live next door to those who murder their bellowed ones
and still to be unable to punish the killers. But personal tragedy pushes Adi,
whose brother died in the massacre, to openly oppose the government.

Kyiv Cinema (19 Velyka Vasylkivska St.). March
21. 9 p.m.


“Bronx Obama”

Ryan Murdock’s “Bronx Obama” is an amusing story about how Louis Ortiz
shaved off his goatee some day in 2008 and found that he looks just like the president
of the U.S. From this moment unemployed middle-aged Puerto Rican family man from the
Bronx started his career as an impersonator of Barack Obama. Ortiz even had a feature in The New York Times and a segment on
The Jeff Probst Show on CBS.

Budynok Kino (6 Saksahanskoho St.).March
25. 9.30 p.m.

Kinopanorama (19 ShotaRustaveli). March 26. 1 p.m.


“Living Fire”

Ukrainian director Ostap Kostyuk captured the beauty of
Ukrainian Carpathians in his documentary “Living Fire” that describes the life
of shepherds, who prefer to stay in the village despite the fact that more and
more people leave it seeking for a job in the city. Sheepherders’ life almost
hasn’t changed, they live in a harmony with nature. But the author wonders how
long they can live like that in fast-changing, chaotic and technologized world.

Kinopanorama (19 ShotaRustaveli). March 21. 8 p.m.