Happy Dox and Ten Happy Documentary Stories!

The eighth edition of ZagrebDox, the largest international documentary film festival in the region, will be taking place in Movieplex in the Centar Kaptol from 26 February to 4 March. The festival program includes more than 150 documentaries, covering a wide range of themes: from controversial political and social phenomena and persons to musical stories and phenomena to cinematic commentaries of documentary masters to teenagers and their problems. This year's official Happy Dox program includes ten documentary stories with a positive attitude.

After having examined the effects of McDonald's fast food on human body in his 'Super Size Me' (which won him an Oscar nomination), the provocative US documentarist Morgan Spurlock is investigating the world of marketing, branding and disguised advertising in film industry in his latest film. Trying to finance his film using the very mechanisms he criticizes, Spurlock literally begins living the brand of every product he signs a contract with, at the same time playing around with the conflicting interests of the growing number of sponsors and planning a campaign for the world's first docbuster, 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold'. 

Israeli short film 'Blood Relations' is the winner of a project launched at the Cannes Festival 2010 that called for creative persons around the world to submit their ideas about bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together. The massive turnout included hundreds of ideas about potential solutions to the conflict. The joint Israeli-Palestinian blood donation initiative won the competition.

Israeli filmmaker Zohar Elefant's documentary video 'Sivan' focuses on the facial expressions of a female fan watching a soccer match. Instead of following the players in the field, the camera centers on the real drama – the one taking place on the stands, in the fans' heads.

 Jamie Kastner's film 'Recessionize! For Fun and Profit!' is a black-humor trip through California, Europe and Dubai. Along the way he meets people who have managed to turn the world economic crisis as an opportunity. With a dose of sadness, the film deals with the universal irony of the modern man whose existence is governed by the market.

'Sixty and the City' is a sincere story told by Israeli director, reporter and producer Nili Tal, who has turned 61 and is looking for love. Using specialized Internet pages, she starts searching for a partner. Having filmed more than 50 dates with men, Nili tells a story in which she explores new rules for finding partners for those who have turned 60.

Kuba Maciejko's 'Bon Appétit' portraits a small Polish catering company, with carefully selected protagonists who prepare food for offices in their small premises. It is an authentic depiction of the present-day reality, seen from the viewpoint of a small business, but with a universal message.

'Buck', the documentary debut of American filmmaker Cindy Meehl, tells us about the authentic horse-whisperer Buck Brannaman, whose work inspired the novelist Nicholas Evans to write 'Horse Whisperer', upon which is based Robert Redford's 1998 movie of the same title. 'Buck' is about Buck's exceptional life. Maltreated by his father as a child, he learned to communicate with horses when he grew up.  The film was awarded on numerous festivals, including Sundance, where it received Audience Award. At HotDocs, it was selected for the top-ten list, audience choice.

Svetlana Nasenkova's 'Uncle Tolya's Cabin' takes us to a small Russian village in Vologda district where we meet Uncle Tolya, a man who has a strange habit of writing letters about his life to the presidents of Russia and the USA. Surprisingly, they write him back.

'Matchmaking Mayor' is an Erika Hníkova's situation documentary about a village mayor who is trying to find partners for the singles who have turned 30. The film received Der Tagesspiel Award at Berlin Festival and Best Documentary Awards at Cinematic International Film Festival and Vukovar Film Festival.

Bob Connolly, one of the great figures of Australian documentary film, has directed his first film after a ten-year break. It is 'Mrs. Carey's Concert'. The film follows Karen Carey, a long-time principal of a girls' school in Sydney, during preparations for the biannual opera concert that requires 18 months of hard work. Carey insists on a demanding classical repertoire, very high quality of performance and active involvement not only of her selected group of students, but also of all 1,200 girls attending the school. The film received Best Director and Best Feature-length Documentary Awards by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts.