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	<title>Alternative Film Guide &#187; Rosemary Westwell</title>
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	<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog</link>
	<description>thinking film</description>
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		<title>THE RAILROAD ALL STARS d: Chema Rodríguez</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/the-railroad-all-stars-chema-rodriguez/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/the-railroad-all-stars-chema-rodriguez/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2007 23:30:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Cinema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Spanish Cinema]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Estrellas de La Línea / The Railroad All Stars (2006)  
Direction and screenplay: Chema Rodríguez
&#160;

Directed by Chema Rodríguez, Estrellas de La Línea / The Railroad All Stars traces the lives of a plucky group of prostitutes who live in dismal conditions near a railroad in Guatemala City. Determined to bring some dignity to their lives &#8212; and to get publicity for their cause &#8212; they form a soccer team, &#34;Estrellas de la Línea.&#34;
As a result of the girls&#8217; sexy jokes, the film&#8217;s dialogue milks humor out of the situation while news commentators indulge these unlikely soccer players with amused encouragement. 
It&#8217;s easy to sympathize with the team members who express their frustrations about their situation. It&#8217;s equally easy to [...]]]></description>
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		<title>HOT HOUSE d: Shimon Dotan</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/hot-house-shimon-dotan/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/hot-house-shimon-dotan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:44:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israeli Cinema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Hot House (2006)  
Direction and screenplay: Shimon Dotan
&#160;

When Hot House was shown as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in London, it was received by the audience in stunned silence. The chilling reality the film portrayed made it almost impossible for us to extricate ourselves from its powerful message &#8212; there was too much to think about; we could not drag ourselves back easily into our world of banal complacency. 
Written and directed by Shimon Dotan, and produced by Arik Berbstein, Jonathan Aroch, Dikla Barkal, and Shimon Dotan, Hot House presents a number of Palestinian male and female inmates in the Ber Sheba, Ashkelon, Hadarim, and Megiddo prisons in Israel. These inmates face the camera with [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>SUFFERING AND SMILING d: Dan Ollman</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/suffering-and-smiling-dan-ollman/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/suffering-and-smiling-dan-ollman/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:25:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[African Cinema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hollywood]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Suffering and Smiling (2006)
Director: Dan Ollman
&#160;

The mass suffering of the people of Africa has long been ignored by more affluent governments elsewhere. This neglect is compounded by the fact that much of that affluence has come from plundering the natural resources of the African continent &#8212; with little thanks or reimbursement to the people who live there.
Dan Ollman&#8217;s atmospheric Suffering and Smiling  highlights the situation in Nigeria. Lone voices cry out against the injustices suffered by the general population while the country&#8217;s rulers maintain a culture of corruption, self-gratification, and ruthless domination of the people they purport to serve.
Suffering and Smiling takes an unusual approach to the problem, as the vitality of at least one segment of Nigeria&#8217;s cultural [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>PUNAM d: Lucian Muntean</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/punam-lucian-muntean/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/punam-lucian-muntean/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:54:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Cinema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shorts]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Punam (2006)
Director: Lucian Muntean.
&#160;

The right of a child to experience the joys of learning and playing is rarely disputed. Yet, as Lucian Muntean&#8217;s 27-minute documentary Punam shows, our world ignores the plight of millions of children like Punam Tamang, a motherless nine-year-old Nepalese girl caught in the inescapable trap of poverty and child labor. Learning and playing are shoved aside while young children, through circumstances not of their own making, are forced to perform the work of adults.
Muntean&#8217;s beautifully shot documentary takes us through Punam&#8217;s daily life in Nepal; her insights into her world make her particular case all the more poignant. Clothing, feeding, and caring for her father, sister, and brother, Punam makes no demands; she simply expresses the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>ROSITA d: Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/rosita-2005-barbara-attie-janet-goldwater/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/rosita-2005-barbara-attie-janet-goldwater/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:59:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hollywood]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Rosita (2005)
Directors: Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater. Screenplay: María López Vigil
&#160;

 Rosita was a 9-year-old Nicaraguan girl who liked drawing colorful pictures. One day, this young girl&#8217;s life was drastically changed when, on the way to school, she was invited into her neighbor&#8217;s house and was raped.
Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater&#8217;s powerful documentary Rosita captures the drama of the defiled child and of her shocked parents. While the Nicaraguan government, the Catholic church, and the media attempt to interfere in the lives of Rosita&#8217;s family, others fight to ensure that the girl&#8217;s parents will have the final say on whether their daughter should go through with the pregnancy. Initially, the family believes they have no choice &#8212; even though their [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
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		<title>TOTAL DENIAL d: Milena Kaneva</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/total-denial-2006-by-milena-kaneva-film-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/total-denial-2006-by-milena-kaneva-film-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Mar 2007 04:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Cinema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Italian Cinema]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/archives/2007/03/14/total-denial-2006-by-milena-kaneva-film-review/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Total Denial (2006)
Director: Milena Kaneva
&#160;

 The destruction of democracy in Myanmar (or Burma) is well known. The brutal behavior of the military is equally familiar, but the extent and consequences of that behavior have rarely been shown to such chilling effect as in Milena Kaneva&#8217;s Total Denial.
Watching the personal accounts &#8212; clearly obtained under dangerous circumstances &#8212; presented in Kaneva&#8217;s documentary, one is brought face to face with the cruelty of Myanmar&#8217;s military junta. A defector, for instance, describes how he was forced to leave the military so as to avoid maiming and killing innocent people. Evidence of torture, murder, and the wanton destruction of homes is plainly displayed. 
Yet, in the face of all this evidence, smartly dressed lawyers [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>CARLA&#8217;S LIST d: Michael Schüpbach</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/carlas-list-2006-by-michael-schupbach-film-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/carlas-list-2006-by-michael-schupbach-film-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:36:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Documentaries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Cinema]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/archives/2007/03/12/carlas-list-2006-by-michael-schupbach-film-review/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[La Liste de Carla / Carla&#8217;s List (2006)  
Direction and screenplay: Marcel Schüpbach
&#160;

THE POLITICS OF GENOCIDE
The devastating effects of political inertia and lack of moral drive are difficult subjects to capture on film, but Marcel Schüpbach&#8217;s La Liste de Carla / Carla&#8217;s List manages to accomplish that feat in an effective and memorable manner. Throughout Schüpbach&#8217;s 2006 documentary, your attention is constantly focused on the injustices of unpunished crime. Although criminal behavior of the worst kind &#8212; in this case, ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia &#8212; has remained mostly unpunished, through the medium of Swiss prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, a forthright symbol of the sword of justice, new hope arises.
Carla&#8217;s List depicts episodes of persuasion, confrontation, and frustration [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/carlas-list-2006-by-michael-schupbach-film-review/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>NOTES ON A SCANDAL &#8211; Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett</title>
		<link>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/notes-on-a-scandal-judi-dench-cate-blanchett/</link>
		<comments>http://www.altfg.com/blog/film-reviews/notes-on-a-scandal-judi-dench-cate-blanchett/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:14:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Rosemary Westwell</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Film Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cate Blanchett]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Judi Dench]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lesbian Interest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oscar 2006]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oscar Movies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philip Glass]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychological Drama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Richard Eyre]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.altfg.com/blog/archives/2007/02/07/notes-on-a-scandal-by-richard-eyre-film-review/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Direction: Richard Eyre
Screenplay: Patrick Marber; from Zoe Heller&#8217;s novel
Cast: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson, Phil Davis, Anne-Marie Duff
&#160;

Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
&#160;

Directed by Richard Eyre, Notes on a Scandal is a must-see for those who enjoy a cleverly constructed plot that explores human relationships to the core. 
Jaded older teacher Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) contrives to ensnare young and beautiful new teacher Bathsheba Hart (Cate Blanchett). In the meantime, 15-year old student Steve Connolly (Andrew Simpson) entices Bathsheba into a turbulent affair, while Sheba&#8217;s husband (Bill Nighy) and children all tear at Sheba&#8217;s loyalties.
Credible characters fill Patrick Marber&#8217;s clever script (from Zoe Heller&#8217;s novel): The management-minded headmaster, the happily [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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