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Remember brash, outspoken Kingsley Tweed from When Voices Rise?

He’s back, in Errol Williams’ latest film, Walking on a Sea of Glass. Williams’ film is one of eight films in the Bermuda International Film Festival’s Competition Documentary section. The festival’s competition documentary category is reserved for first- and second-time feature directors.

Two local films are in the category this year — Walking on a Sea of Glass and Lucinda Spurling’s Rare Bird — as well as four films from the United States, and one each from Canada and Israel. Williams’ film nearly didn’t make it into the festival. BIFF Director Aideen Ratteray-Pryse said in a press release: “When we announced the local films in the festival last week, it appeared that Errol was going to be unable to complete the film in time to screen at BIFF.

“But he arrived in our office last Friday to say that he had been successful in securing the necessary additional funding to finish the film. That is great news — and gives us four local films in the line-up.” Mr. Williams won the Audience Choice Award at BIFF 2002 for When Voices Rise. Walking of a Sea of Glass focuses on Kingsley Tweed, who now lives in London. Lucinda Spurling’s Rare Bird is about the re-discovery of the Cahow some 325 years after it was thought to be extinct.

The other six films are as follows:

n China Blue, by director Micha Peled, takes filmgoers inside a blue jeans factory, where Jasmine and her friends, Orchid and Li Ping, are trying to survive the harsh work environment. The film has won numerous festival awards, including the Amnesty International Human Rights Award at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, widely considered the world’s best documentary film festival.

n Favela Rising, by co-directors Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist, is about Anderson Sa, a former drug dealer in the favelas (shanty towns) looming over Rio de Janeiro. Haunted by the murders of friends and family, he uses the power of music to rally his community to war against the violent oppression enforced by teenage drug armies and sustained by corrupt police.

n Just Married, by director Ayelet Bechar, is a startling look at life in Israel for Arabs. Kifah and Sudah are two newly wed Palestinian women coming to terms – or not – with the Citizenship Law. Effective since 2003, the law forbids residents of the Palestinian Authority from entering Israel, even if they are married to Israeli citizens. These two very personal and poignant stories reflect the cruel reality of thousands of couples.

n Pirate Radio USA, by director Jeff Pearson, is a fun, clever documentary that challenges the belief that Americans have freedom of speech. The film is deftly light and entertaining – largely due to stand-up comedian Pearson’s style of delivery – while posing questions that are big and real. As the debate over who controls the Internet heats up, this film illustrates that the question is not answered easily or quickly since the control over radio, the Internet’s elder cousin, is still up for grabs.

n Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, by co-directors Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen and Jessica Joy Wise, is an epic journey into the heart of heavy metal music by Mr. Dunn, an anthropologist and lifelong heavy metal fan. He visits heavy metal landmarks as farflung as L.A.’s Sunset Strip, the dreary streets of Birmingham, England, and the dark forests of Norway, interviewing musicians, fans, and social commentators to figure out why heavy metal is consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned by some, while retaining a loyal and enthusiastic following.

n King Leopold’s Ghost, by director Pippa Scott, is based on the book of the same name, a bestseller about the exploitation of the Congolese people by European imperialists. The villainous behaviour of King Leopold II of Belgium, and explorer Henry Morton Stanley, are scrutinised — as is the courage of journalist George Washington Williams, who worked diligently to expose the brutality and, in the process, coined the term “crimes against humanity”.

Tickets for the festival, March 17-25, go on sale March 8, online at www.biff.bm. The box office will open March 11 at 10 am at the BIFF Front Room festival headquarters at # 6 Passenger Terminal, Front Street, Hamilton.[[In-content Ad]]

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