Millennium Film

Miriam Makeba was one of the first African musicians who won international stardom and whose music was always anchored in her traditional South African roots. Miriam Makeba was forced into exile in 1959. She sang for John F. Kennedy, performed with Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone, was married to Hugh Masekela and also Stokely Carmichael. Her life was tumultuous. She always stood for truth and justice. She fought for the oppressed most importantly for black Africans, as a campaigner against apartheid. She died November 2008 after a concert in Italy. Mika Kaurismäki's documentary, traces fifty years of her music and her performing life. Through rare archive footage of her performances and through interviews with her contemporaries we discover the remarkable journey of Miriam Makeba.

Director John Webster convinces his wife and two small children that the whole family should go on an oil diet, yet without having to give up their a middle class suburban lifestyle. All the everyday things that we don't do, or that we can't help doing, make up recipes for disaster. In this comedy of errors they find themselves questioning their values and putting to test their will power and ultimately, their happiness.

The prostitutes of Bombay live a nightmare life, yet there are some people who try to bring a little light into the darkness of the brothels. The film follows the lives of women in two brothels in the slums of Bombay. Some of the women are old, some are very young, but they have all been cheated into the business. And cheated out of life. For ten years now, Vinay, a social worker, has been trying to help them by saving them from AIDS and giving them some comfort. Although they are degraded and exploited outcasts, these women manage to retain some human dignity and cheerfulness. And some hope.

Filmmaker John Webster sets out on a road-trip with his imaginary great granddaughter in an attempt to understand the moral and behavioural choices that make tackling climate change so difficult. A documentary film with humoristic overtones about a fundamental question: what is our responsibility to future generations?

An elderly Nenets woman in teepee on northern Russia's Yamal Peninsula recounts her early life betrothed to a deity for the entertainment of a blind young girl. In the Nenets culture, a girl child can be married to holiest of holies, Num, before or after her birth. Lonely old Numd' Syarda (which means, literally, 'tied to Num') entertains the blind young Ilne ('giver of life') with stories of how she became one of these chosen few.

Bilal lives with his blind parents who do not need light. In his dark house he plays hide-and-seek and teases his younger brother.