ZagrebDox Reveals This Year's International Competition Aces

The 13th ZagrebDox international competition includes four titles from the current long list Academy Award entries in the documentary film category. The most famous among them is the docu-thriller Zero Days, the latest film by the acclaimed Oscar winner and one of the most prolific documentarians of today, Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, The Armstrong Lie, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room etc.). Exploring the circumstances of the making and expansion of Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm fully created by Americans and Israelis to sabotage the functioning of the Iranian nuclear programme, the authors, in a broader sense, focus on the new form of global warfare, the so-called cyber-wars. 

Hooligan Sparrow, a debut documentary by Nanfu Wang, is shot in the form of a guerrilla video. The film centres on Chinese women's rights activists led by the former prostitute Ye Haiyan (Hooligan Sparrow). Sparked by the case of a primary school principal who raped six schoolgirls, they are trying to change the laws favouring the rapist. The activists and the director's work draws the attention of the secret police and government officials, which is why most of the film was shot by hidden cameras. 

The Oscar list also includes Life, Animated, a touching documentary about autism directed by the American Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams (Music by Prudence), which earned him the best director award at Sundance. Owen Suskind was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, and his parents had to learn overnight how to communicate with a boy who fully shut down from the world. Soon they discovered that The Little Mermaid, Lion King and many other Disney's animated characters could be of help.

Cameraperson is a cinematic collage composed of so far unseen footage made by the famous American cinematographer and director Kirsten Johnson (Citizenfour, The Invisible War, Fahrenheit 9/11. It includes materials made during her quarter of a century long career in cinematography, ranging from the footage from the post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, to daily routines of a Nigerian midwife, to intimate family moments at home and walks with philosopher Jacques Derrida. In the film, Johnson examines and challenges her own work, relationships with people in front of the camera, including the ethical and emotional dimension of cinematography. 

See you at ZagrebDox!