The Fence (La Barda)
Director/Producer: Rory Kennedy
Writer: Mark Bailey
Producers: Liz Garbus, Keven McAlester
Senior Producer: Nancy Abraham
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins
Moxie Firecracker Films, HBO Documentary Films
In October 2006, the US government decided to build a 700-mile fence along its troubled 2,000-mile-plus border with Mexico. Three years, 19 construction companies, 350 engineers, thousands of construction workers, tens of thousands of tons of metal and $3 billion later, was it all worth it? The Fence (La Barda) investigates the impact of the project, revealing how its stated goals-containing illegal immigration, cracking down on drug trafficking and protecting America from terrorists-have given way to unforeseen, even absurd consequences.
Keep Dancing
DirectorWriter: Greg Vander Veer
Producer: Douglas Blair Turnbaugh
Turnbaugh/Vander Veer Productions
After celebrated careers, legendary dancers Marge Champion and Donald Saddler became friends while performing together in the Broadway Show Follies in 2001. When the show closed, they decided to rent a private studio together, and they have been choreographing and rehearsing original dances ever since. At age 90, they continue to pursue their passion for life through their love and mastery of dance. Keep Dancing seamlessly blends nine decades of archival film and photographs with present-day footage to tell a story through dance of the passing of time and the process of aging.
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
Director: Daniel Junge
Producers: Henry Ansbacher, Davis Coombe
Co-Producer: Andy Schocken
HBO Documentary Films
In 1994, a year after serving two terms as one of the most popular governors in modern Washington State history, Booth Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In 2008, as his health continued to deteriorate, he returned to the political spotlight, this time as the driving force behind a ballot initiative that would legalize one's choice to die. The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner chronicles his controversial crusade, looking at both sides of this hotly debated issue.
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Directors/Producers: Steve Bognar, Julia Reichert
Supervising Producer: Lisa Heller
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins
HBO Documentary Films
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant focuses on the workers of the General Motors Assembly Plant in Moraine, Ohio-which opened in 1981, and churned out an average of 280,000 small trucks and SUVs a year-from the announcement a year prior that the plant would be closing, to its last day on December 23, 2008, just two days before Christmas. While the workers are shocked that they will be losing their jobs, they are losing much more: the pride they share in their work, the camaraderie built through the years, and the shared concerns about what their collective futures will hold. The film offers a snapshot of a moment in America where we may be seeing the end of the blue-collar middle class.
Woman Rebel
Director/Producer: Kiran Deol
Executive Producer: Robert Richter
Women Rebel Films, HBO Documentary Films
From 1996 to 2006, the Asian country of Nepal was ravaged by civil war, with Maoist rebels fighting to overthrow a monarchy they felt catered only to the rich. Women in search of equal rights and opportunities made up a full 40 percent of the rebel army. First-time filmmaker Kiran Deol looks at this controversial revolution through the eyes of one soldier.