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True Stories - Season 2008

True Stories: Season 2008 - 7 Episode s

2008x1 - Waltz with Bashir
January 1, 2008
One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early 80s. Ari is surprised that he can no longer remember a thing about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images... Folman's animated film won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar.
2008x2 - We Are Together
December 4, 2008
WE ARE TOGETHER tells the moving and inspiring story of 12 year old Slindile and her remarkable friends at the Agape orphanage in South Africa. Filmed over three years, with unforgettable kids, soaring music and a plot full of surprises, WE ARE TOGETHER arrives as a stirring and uplifting theatrical documentary.
2008x3 - An Independent Mind
December 10, 2008
To tie in with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, More4's True Stories is exploring independent minds. More4's True Stories: An Independent Mind traces the lives and tales of eight very different people. Among them are the Moustache Brothers - a comedy troupe from Burma who're under house arrest because they're banned by the Burmese military regime. As such, the three-strong act performs illegally for tourists from their home in Mandalay. There's reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, who in December 2007 was declared persona non grata in Senegal after criticizing the president. What ties the above two, and other stories, together, is that in each case there's a desire to exercise a freedom of expression and the right to have an opinion. It's an insightful look into eight very different world's, but world's that still make an impact because their stories are all-powerful.
2008x4 - Chosen
September 30, 2008
Thirty years on, three men dare to break the silence about sexual abuse in English private schools. Directed by Emmy and BAFTA-award winner, Brian Woods, Chosen tackles a subject often whispered but rarely spoken about - the sexual abuse of boys by teachers in Britain's private schools. For thirty years the boys, and the men they became, stayed silent, nursing the secret of the abuse they suffered. But in this film, Tom, Mark and Alastair break that silence with spellbinding articulacy and breathtaking honesty - telling their stories straight to camera. Chosen reveals how these boys were groomed, how the private school system was poorly regulated and how abuse goes undetected.
2008x5 - The Hunger Season
December 16, 2008
The Hunger Season tells the story of a young teacher called Justine and the children in his care as they struggle to survive in a year of drought and diminishing food handouts. Shot over a two-year period on location in the US, Europe and Southern Africa, the film explores the wider forces at work in an unfolding humanitarian crisis, bringing vividly alive the impact of actions taken by the Swazi government, United Nations agencies and Western donors on the fate of one small community. With a close eye cast on the system of food aid, crucial questions are asked about whether the international aid response is committing sufficient resources to end the cycle of hunger in the developing world.
2008x6 - Waiting for Hockney
December 24, 2008
WAITING FOR HOCKNEY is a comic and poignant tale of a man and the people who believe in him as they collude and collide for an entire decade in the service of a grand idea. The film explores the sometimes precarious line between dreams and delusion as it looks at the risks, payoffs and consequences when one man single-mindedly pursues his vision. Billy Pappas is a true American original. An art school graduate from a working class background living in rural Maryland, Billy has decided that his mission in life is to reinvent realism. He spends eight years on a single drawing, working to show a microscopic level of detail he hopes will reveal something deeper than photography. Literally, he hopes to create a new art form. Aided, one might even say enabled, by an eccentric cast of characters including a clergyman, a professor and an architect calling himself Dr. Lifestyle, Billy finally completes the portrait and then begins a quest to show it to renowned contemporary artist David Hockney, the one person he thinks can validate everything for which Billy has been striving.
2008x7 - Black Star: An African Football Odyssey
December 31, 2008
A documentary focusing on Africa, football, and notably Ghana's football star Michael Essien, as he takes time out with his training at Chelsea to play for his country in the African Cup of Nations. Director Paul Yule.

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