The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Documentary Branch Nominating Committee has shortlisted fifteen films for consideration for the 2008 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Five will make it to the voting ballot. One will win the golden statuette.
'At The Death House Door'
IFC Films
At the Death House Door is a personal and intimate look at the death penalty in Texas through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, a prison chaplain who has shepherded many death row inmates to their executions, and the effects that his 15 year career and mission have had on his life.
'The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)'
Celluloid Dreams
Famed cinematographer Ellen Kuras' documentary, The Betrayal, has been some 20 years in the making. It follows co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath, his mother, and eight siblings who fled Laos and arrived in Brooklyn, NY, in 1981, documenting their American acclimatization. It takes us all the way up to the present, when Phrasavath learns that his father, who'd worked for the CIA and had been in Laotian 'reeducation' camps, is still alive and living with his new family in Florida. The titular betrayal is both familial and governmental.
'Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh'
Katahdin Productions
Narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, Blessed Is the Match is the first documentary feature about Hannah Senesh, the World War II-era poet and diarist who became a paratrooper, resistance fighter and modern-day Joan of Arc as she valiantly attempted to rescue Jews from her native Hungary during the Holocaust.
'Encounters at the End of the World'
THINKFilm
While seeking answers to his own set of curious questions, filmmaker Werner Herzog creates a fascinating travelogue that takes us to locations few humans have visited and introduces us to Antarctica, the wondrous place known as the Big Ice.
'Fuel'
The film's tag line is a perfect statement of its thesis: America is addicted to oil...it's time for an intervention.'The Garden'
Don Normark/Black Valley Films
The community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles, the largest of its kind in the United States, began as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992. South Central Farmers have created a beautiful area in a blighted neighborhoods, growing their own food to feed their families and their community. The Garden follows them as they fight to preserve their garden from commercial development.
'Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts'
This revealing profile of Philip Glass provides great insight into the avant-garde composer's music and artistic process. In 2005, filmmaker Scott Hicks began shooting a documentary about the composer Philip Glass to celebrate his 70th anniversary in 2007. Over the next 18 months, Scott followed Philip across three continents, filming his his annual ride on Coney Island's Cyclone roller coaster, the world premiere of his new opera in Germany and his performance with a didgeridoo virtuoso in Australia. Scott had unprecedented access to Glass and his family, and the documentary is an intimately revealing portrait of a great artist.'I.O.U.S.A'
Agora Entertainment
Filmmaker Patrick Creadon’s intention in making I.O.U.S.A. is clear from the start: he wants us to know the whole lowdown on America‘s national debt, a sum that’s topping the 10 trillion dollar mark and is rising at an incredibly rapid rate.
'In A Dream'
Herzliya Films
Over the past four decades, artist Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals. In A Dream chronicles his work and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia. It follows the Zagars as their marriage implodes and a harrowing new chapter in their life unfolds.
'Made In America'
The Gang Documentary
Stacy Peralta directs this as an investigation of the African-American gang culture that has ruled the streets of South Central Los Angeles for decades. Made In America depicts the social deterioration and despair that leads youths to join gangs, and is a compassionate look at the African-American men and women who're often simply dismissed as gangbangers.
