Tag Archives: law

A Revolution in Four Seasons

This seminal film tells the story of two women with opposing political views fighting for their different versions of a democratic future for Tunisia, the country that sparked the Arab Spring.

Over the course of Tunisia’s critical post-revolution years, we follow journalist Emna Ben Jemaa, who envisions a country governed by free speech and without the corruption of the former regime. In contrast, Jawhara Ettis of the Islamist party Ennahda works towards a Tunisia guided by Islamic principles.

On a public level, both women must navigate how females are treated in their society, while in their own homes they must make difficult choices to balance their public political roles with marriage and motherhood.

Both know the stakes are high and the ever-present threat of Islamic extremists means their fragile political process could break down at any moment and all they’ve worked for could be lost.

Through the intertwined stories of Emna and Jawhara, the unresolved tensions of the Arab spring are laid bare. A Revolution in Four Seasons gives both a comprehensive review of this crucial period as well as an intimate look at what these sometimes painful compromises mean for those living in a country struggling to define itself.

A Revolution in Four Seasons from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

The Strategy of Silence

Valencia, July 2006. One of the worse subway disasters in history occurs when a train derails, killing 43. While relatives mourn the victims, attention turns to the arrival of the Pope five days later, a PR agency is hired to sweep the incident under the carpet and within a month the case is closed.

Faced with a media blackout and a wall-of-silence from the government, a small group of families of the victims led by Beatriz Garrote begin what at first appears to be a hopeless cause – to find the truth about what happened that fateful day and seek justice for those who died.

The Strategy of Silence chronicles their 9 year struggle, and along the way exposes government corruption, mass safety breaches, a cynical culture of cover-ups and both a media and judiciary in thrall to government officials.

From nothing the protests grow until they can no longer be ignored, Beatriz’s band of bereaved campaigners first take over their local television station and finally reach the European Parliament. They are granted an independent investigation vindicating their entire struggle and finally leading to the downfall of the leading PP party.

The Strategy of Silence is an inspiring under-dog story, that showcases government capacity for deception and abuse, but also the power that we as citizens can – with courage and tenacity – take back.

The Strategy of Silence from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

Code of Silence

Code of Silence follows the parallel journeys of a fervently Orthodox Jewish father and his now-secular son, after the son Manny breaks the code of silence in Melbourne’s Orthodox community and goes public with his story of being sexually abused as a school student.

Manny Waks claims he was abused by an Orthodox Jewish security guard, who also taught boys karate, at the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne. Now Manny is demanding his abuser be brought to justice, and the rabbis and Chabad leaders who tried to cover it up, are brought to account.

His father Zephaniah joins forces with his son, but soon finds he has been virtually excommunicated for breaking an ancient Jewish law forbidding Jews from informing secular authorities about other Jews.

We see how father and son split this tightly-knit, powerful Jewish community as we open the door into their insular world of study and duty, charity and faith, power and piety.

Will Manny get justice in court? Will the rabbis be held to account? And, what price will the father and son pay for blowing the whistle?

 

Code of Silence from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence follows the journey of Manny Waks who was, until recently, the only survivor of child sexual abuse within Melbourne’s Orthodox Jewish community to speak publicly.

This is the dramatic follow up to the Walkley Award winning Code of Silence. 

Breaking the Silence begins with Manny Waks as he gives evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, during which two ultra-Orthodox Jewish institutions are accused of covering-up and protecting perpetrators in the 1980s and 90s. 

Over two explosive weeks inside Melbourne’s County Court, viewers will witness, for the first time, those rabbis and officials accused of the cover-ups take the stand and be grilled. For the first time, it is also revealed that Manny was not the only member of the family who was abused; Manny’s father Zephaniah Waks reveals two other sons were abused by a Yeshivah Centre teacher, David Kramer in the 1990’s. He had tried to have the abuse handled by community leaders but was subject to an ancient code of silence that forbids Jews from speaking about the allegations involving other Jews, to the police.

The result was that Zephaniah and his wife were virtually excommunicated and feeling isolated, they decided to relocate to Israel. Now his other son Yanky agrees to speak on camera for the first time.

After the hearings, Manny travels to the United States to confront one of the two men who he claims abused him. The film’s climax follows Manny to Los Angeles, where he meets a convicted pedophile who was given a suspended sentence for abusing AVB in Sydney in the 1980s. It’s a powerful moment between victim and abuser that delivers an unexpected conclusion.

Will Manny’s confrontation with the man he claims abused him give him peace of mind? And will his meeting with the convicted pedophile give him a crucial sense of resolution?

Breaking the Silence from Sideways Film on Vimeo.

Call Me Dad

Can violent men change? Call Me Dad is a film that takes its audience to the most delicate and painful place inside a parent’s heart. A place where good intentions and hope are pitted against entrenched and tormenting cycles of violence.

For some of these fathers, their fists are their weapons. For others, words and manipulation are most potent, used as part of a sustained pattern of intimidation, threats, and abuse intended to isolate, diminish and control the people they love. Now these men are seeking change. They have come together to talk, share information, challenge and support each other to be better men, partners and fathers to their children.

The group’s founder and facilitator David Nugent believes that women and children have the right to live their lives free from violence, and that men can change if they have the will and opportunity to do so. He challenges men to take ownership of their abusive and violent behaviours, and shows them that they can make different choices, and in doing so, can stop the cycle of violence.

David draws these men deep into conversation about the underbelly of patriarchal forms of masculinity, and the ways in which sexism can harm and diminish women, and constrict and isolate men.

Together the participants in David’s program are reaching for the courage and knowledge they need to be good partners, and good fathers. These men have taken the brave and difficult decision to confront their behaviours and histories head-on. These Dads are fighting to change the story for the next generation. Can these men re-establish ‘family’?

No Limits

Shot over 25 years, No Limits is a ‘7 Up’ inspired long form narrative documentary that follows the lives of our disabled protagonists – Thalidomide victims – over the course of decades, and reveals how changes in societies attitudes to disability have affected them.

It is also a scathing investigation into the crime of the century, as a new generation of Thalidomide babies are born in Brazil, decades after it was banned across most of the western world and its harmful effects publicised. Academy Award winning director John Zaritsky joins activists in Germany, Canada and the UK as they plot to reveal a sinister and long hidden complicity by the Thalidomide manufacturer, their Nazi background and a quest for justice for all.

Victor’s Last Class

At the age of 52 and suffering from terrible chronic back pain, Victor D’Altorio decided to end his life.

Victor was a proud homosexual, a lover of life, honest, and outrageous. As an acting teacher of the Meisner technique for 20 years, he was committed to living in the moment, and accepting all that that had to offer, however painful it may be. But after fighting bone marrow cancer into remission he found himself with debilitating degenerative disc disorder in his neck and back, and he could not deny the pain that he was in or the dim prospects of relief. His personal commitment to truth and honesty made him despise the idea of suicide in the traditional sense. He simply could not cause that pain to the ones he loved. He decided to tell everyone (via his blog) that he was going to kill himself. This is the starting point for our story.

Over the next five months together we see Vic soaking in the tub in pain, making sex jokes, yelling at the cameraman, crying over his deceased partner, teaching eager new students, wavering on the big choice, and bonding with Brendan, the film maker. During this time, Brendan’s mission changes. He stops being simply the filmmaker asking why, and becomes a close friend trying to change Victor’s mind. Brendan puts together an acting class for Victor to teach to remind him of the life he once loved living, he teams with other students to produce the play that Victor had written, he does all he can to convince his new friend and mentor to stick around.

Who Took Johnny

If you’ve ever gotten separated from your child for just a few moments and remember the depth of panic that sets in, then you can begin to understand what Noreen Gosch has felt over the last 30 years since her son Johnny disappeared delivering newspapers on the morning of September 5, 1982.

More than any other missing child case, Johnny’s story has spawned countless theories and has instilled intrigue in the millions who remember the kid on the side of a milk carton. Along the way there have been mysterious sightings, strange clues, bizarre revelations and ambiguous photographs. A confrontation with a person who claims to have helped abduct Johnny paves the way to a crime scene and the possible involvement of a child abduction and prostitution ring. And then a knock on the door in the middle of the night raises as many questions as perhaps it answers..

Who Took Johnny is an examination into the infamous thirty-year-old cold case behind the disappearance of Iowa paperboy Johnny Gosch, the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. The film focuses on the heartbreaking story of Johnny’s mother, Noreen Gosch, her relentless quest to find the truth about what happened that tragic September morning when Johnny never returned from his paper route and her life since in helping others to mobilise the authorities when their children go missing.

Who Took Johnny captures the endless intrigue and conspiracy theories surrounding the eye-witness accounts, compelling evidence and emotional discoveries which span three decades of the most spellbinding missing person’s case in U.S. history.

“Timely, shocking and relentlessly compelling, documentary Who Took Johnny recounts the strange story surrounding the disappearance of paperboy Johnny Gosch, one of the original milk carton kids..Viewers with a taste for true-crime drama and plausible conspiracy theories are likely to come away wanting more, making the film a good candidate for a spin-off series. Others may cherish the ambiguity here, the way Capturing the Friedmans it allows room for debate.. despite the potentially lurid nature of the material, the film is never exploitative and a sense of compassion and respect, one untarnished by sentimentality, for victims and their families shines through throughout.”
Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter

“An amazing, lunatic documentary that will leave you creeped-out, excited and surprised”
John Waters, director of Hairspray and Crybaby

 

The God Cells: A Fetal Stem Cell Journey

Stem Cell research and therapy have been growing at a rapid rate over the past fifteen years. Scientific advances coupled with consumer demand have proven that stem cell therapy is the wave of the future, and is poised to change the face of medicine.

The only hurdles have been religious and regulatory roadblocks slowing down the approval process for fetal stem cell therapy, arguably the most contested and controversial form of stem cell therapy to date, due to them being harvested from abortions.

The God Cells takes the audience on a journey with those who seek the life changing fetal stem cell therapy abroad, while avoiding the seemingly insurmountable roadblocks at home.

“The demand is real, patients with current unmet medical needs are desperate and require this therapy, but the current regulatory and industry hurdles are making it near impossible for us to do our job and get these important stem cell therapies to those people in need. Because of this, many scientific organizations are taking their technology abroad to appease patient demand, because they feel the current regulatory hurdles are insurmountable.”

Randal Mills, PhD, President and CEO for California Institute For Regenerative Medicine

Burzynski: Cancer Cure Cover Up

Burzynski: The Cancer Cure Cover-up is the story of a pioneering biochemist who discovered a unique and proprietary method of successfully treating most cancers. This documentary takes the audience on a near 50-year journey both Dr. Burzynski and his patients have been enduring in order to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of Antineoplastons. Defying the face of skepticism, legal attacks from state and federal agencies, and a powerful propaganda campaign to stop Burzynski – this doctor and his patients are still going strong.

Due to the continued failed efforts of state and federal agencies in their attempts to stop Burzynski from continuing to treat patients and expand his research, special interest groups have since launched a relentless propaganda campaign against Dr. Burzynski, and his supporters and patients, in hopes  that this game-changing innovation never reach the open market.

The primary reason that the cancer industry and its regulatory agencies fear the approval of Antineoplastons is purely economical.

If Antineoplastons were FDA-approved for just one cancer type this would mean that anyone of any age diagnosed with any type of cancer could legally insist their oncologist provide them with Antineoplastons “off-label”.   Given the gentle and nontoxic nature of these medications, most people would begin to opt for Antineoplastons as a first line of defense against their cancer instead of first choosing life-threatening yet profitable chemotherapy and radiation.

Burzynski: The Cancer Cure Cover-up investigates this hidden cancer treatment and the decades of failed lawsuits the US government and FDA have pursued in order to try to silence him.

Burning From the Inside

German and Greek nationalists have paradoxically joined forces, and grown in numbers promoting a fascist agenda while on both sides, antifascists have risen to challenge them amidst a backdrop of global recession, finger-pointing and scapegoating. 

Burning from the Inside charts the rise of the Greek Nazis ‘Golden Dawn’ – the ‘monstrous’ child of the crisis – the changes they brought to Greek society after their entry to parliament, their collaboration with German Neo-Nazis in the formation of ‘Black International’, and their fall two years later with the murder of the anti-fascist Pavlos Fissas.

Through the trajectory of the party, we question the political and social structures of Greek leadership that fomented the rise of fascism and corruption, as well as the dis-function of Capitalism and Democracy in the country that gave birth to it. We also look at the role of Germany as the ‘queen of Europe’ and the extent to which she is responsible for developments in southern European countries.

While the rise of far right may seem unthinkable, dramatic scenes of racially motivated blood shed on the streets of Athens, police brutality linked to membership of far-right organisations and institutional racism in Greece tell a different story. Meanwhile, in Germany a more subtle, insidious message reaches the public with headlines blaming ‘lazy Greeks’ and other minorities within the country. Burning from the Inside is a visceral indictment of a deadly minority on the fringes of Europe that we ignore at our peril.

An Invisible Threat

We cannot see the waves, we cannot hear them, we cannot touch them, but they are all around us, invading the air, irradiating our body and the environment.

An Invisible Threat looks at the relationship between microwave technology and health, investigating the conflicts of interest among industry representatives, politicians, scientists and consumers that leave us unprotected to the effects of radiation.

Wireless networks irradiate microwaves indiscriminately across cities, villages and the countryside of all developed countries. This increasing exposure disturbs the biological processes that are essential for the healthy growth of human beings, animals and plants – it especially affects children and teenagers.

The reasonable doubt that has arisen from independent scientific reports regarding the harmful effects of these technologies has led the Council of Europe to recommend its members countries apply the Precautionary Principle. In June 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a body of the World Health Organization (WHO), admitted for the first time that microwaves produced by mobile phones could be “possible carcinogens”.

Our investigation delves  into three groups: the telecommunications industry (mobile telephone companies, MMF); official organisations (WHO, IARC, ICNIRP) and official scientific reports (BioInitiative, Interphone, CEFALO).

In parallel, An Invisible Threat takes in the daily life of Minerva Palomar, a woman affected by the electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome and the obstacles she needs to overcome in order to lead a normal life.

An Invisible Threat has a clear international focus, dealing with a social issue of global importance. Microwave effects are currently being analysed and debated in almost all developed countries. The question is, are we prepared for the answers.