Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is proud to announce a dynamic programme of events and screenings for Document 7- CCA & GFT, Glasgow, 21st – 25th Oct 09.

Document is the UK’s only dedicated human rights documentary festival, one of just 18 worldwide. This year, with a record number of submissions and a programme of premieres and award-winning documentaries, Document affirms its reputation as one of the most unique and anticipated events on the Scottish calendar.

Document 7 will screen over 60 outstanding national and international documentaries that look at human rights in its broadest sense, as personal stories with a global punch. Audiences can expect to find films that are both accessible and thought provoking, engaging and challenging, then debate them with invited speakers.

Document 7 will show films which cover ground often ignored or overlooked by the mainstream media - films that show how real people are affected by the great events of our age on their own turf, and how they deal with that - films in which people refuse to be defined simply as victims of circumstance.

Document 7 Highlights this year include the festival’s opening film- Umoja: The Village Where Men Are Forbidden, tells the story of a group of women who form their own community in rural Northern Kenya. Sexually abused by British soldiers, and rejected by their husbands, they founded Umoja in 1990- a thriving village where children of both sexes are treated equally, and from where the women go to neighbouring villages to raise awareness of gender equality, HIV/AIDS and circumcision issues; their only problem now is that they must defend themselves against the men, (comma) who envy their success in making a new life on their own terms. French Directors Jean-Marc Sainclair and Jean Crousillal will be at the screening to introduce the film and lead a Q & A afterwards, and will be available for interview.

Goodbye, How Are You? proves the lie that human rights film has to be solemn or worthy, as Boris Mitic’ tongue-in-cheek road movie slowly builds up a picture of the former Jugoslavia, its people and its culture, through a 'satirical-vérité narration' and over 400 unique 'satirical documentary shots' filmed on a three-year, 50.000 km trip along Balkan side roads.

China’s Wild West shows that beautiful images can also have a moral purpose in a cinematically striking film which follows a day in the life of a Muslim Uighur community in their hopeful efforts to discover Jade in the harsh conditions of a dried-up river bed near a remote town on the old Silk Road in Western China.

Durakovo: Village of Fools examines a “utopian” community 100 km southwest of Moscow owned by Mikhail Morozov- Russian patriot, good Christian and successful businessman. People come there from all over Russia to learn how to become “true Russians” by abandoning all their former rights and obeying Morozov’s strict rules. Purposefully restrained, yet cunningly subversive, Durakovo: Village Of Fools provides a chilling glimpse of fascist ideology on the rise.

Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen is a groundbreaking work which helps illuminate the debate surrounding the role of race in transitional experience. Kortney Ryan Ziegler, African American filmmaker from California, film student of Spike Lee, will present a Glasgow School of Art Friday Event and screen Still Black at the GFT on Sunday 25th October 2pm - 4pm. Zeigler will also available for interview.

To run in tandem with a series of discussions surrounding the current situation for UK asylum seekers, we will be screening a number of short films from the The Estate series. Directed by Ruth Carslaw, these films uncover the lives of individuals living on the Sighthill council estate in Glasgow in the year leading up to its demolition. The 7 selections included are specifically focused on the lives of refugees, which build into a compelling portrait o