The Smiley documentary films collection is comprised of award-winning films that have performed impressively in the international festival circuit. Representing the best of independent film-making, this is the company's blue-chip catalogue and it includes films that have scored coveted industry awards such as the Oscar and the Peabody as well as awards from prestigious festivals such as Sundance, Hotdocs and IDFA.
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The Last Magic Show
New Zealand / Andy Conlan / 90 mins
"Well acted, darkly lit and gorgeously shot, the dark undertones of this story seem to ooze off the screen...As the story builds to an exciting climax...you will be reminded...
Sunset Strip
USA / In production / Hans Fjellestad / 90 mins / 55 mins version on request mins
From the producers of MOOG, THE HEART IS A DRUM MACHINE, I.O.U.S.A and WHEN THE WORLD BREAKS...
The Happy Hoaxer
USA / In development / Director's details to be announced / 90 mins mins
In this feature comedy, a young and ambitious newspaper reporter, in pursuit of a hot story gets caught up in a wild goose chase with an infamous prankster. Set in the...
Drugs and Death at Bagram
USA / 2010 / Shaun McCanna / 57 mins
The mystery surrounding the death of a young US soldier which begins under a fog of foul play and drug abuse ultimately reveals a growing controversy around the use of...
When the World Breaks
USA / 2010 / Hans Fjellestad / 52mins & 84 mins
When the World Breaks takes the audiences beyond the bread lines and dust bowls of the Great Depression and into one of the most formative and creative decades...
A Soldier's Peace
USA / 2009 / Kristen Thompson and Marshall Thompson / 87 & 55 mins
When Army journalist Marshall Thompson came home from a tour of duty in Iraq, two things were clear to him – the war was wrong and he needed to do something to stop it...
5 Hours with Raja
New Zealand / 2009 / Anna McKessar / 52 mins
5 Hours with Raja charts the experiences of a young mother who chooses to carry her unborn baby to term, despite the diagnosis of a fatal birth defect. Despite...
Barah Aana
India / 2009 / Raja Menon / 93 mins
Barah Aana is a comedy of real life, set in today’s Mumbai. The story revolves around three unlikely friends: a driver (Naseeruddin Shah), a watchman (Vijay Raaz), and...
Intifada NYC
USA / 2009 / David Teague / 47 mins
terrorists. As critics and the mainstream media stoked the flames in the climate of post-9/11 America, the controversy forced the school's Arab-American Muslim principal...
Kit & Maynie: Tea, Scones and Nuclear Disarmament
New Zealand / 2009 / Claudia Pond Eyley and Susi Newborn / 47 mins
Kit and Maynie: Tea, Scones and Nuclear Disarmament is a humorous story with a serious message about two octogenarians who juggled peace and nuclear testing demonstrations...
The Border City 2
South Korea / 2009 / Hyung-sook Hong / 104 mins
In 2003 Song Du-Yul, a Korean philosophy professor, returned to his homeland after having spent thirty-seven years in political exile in Germany. During his visit to South...
Against the Grain
USA & Perú / 2008 / Ann Kaneko / 65 mins
In 1989, Alfredo Márquez used an image of Mao in an artwork.He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. For every artist, the need to create and be heard is as basic as food...
In Search of Shilan
Australia/Iraq / 2008 / Memuzin River / 60 mins
Ten years ago, Cetin, a Kurdish poet, went into exile from Turkey, and after many months via Bulgaria and South Africa, arrived in Australia as a refugee. Leaving the...
LOOT
USA / 2008 / Darius Marder / 86 mins / TV cut available upon request mins
"One of the most perfect documentaries I have ever seen. You'll get lost in it. The story is so complex and the characters so quirky, that you'd think the Coen...
My Father's Studio
Canada / 2008 / Jennifer Alleyn / 72 & 52 mins
After her father’s death in 2004, Canadian director Jennifer Alleyn find herself drawn to his studio – an intimate space, still exuding the artist's imagination. The film...
Smile Pinki
India / 2008 / Megan Mylan / 40 mins
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll never forget this heart-warming and true – story of a brave little girl who waited six long years for a life-changing surgery that took...
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
USA / Kenya / 2008 / Lisa Merton and Alan Dater / 80 & 54 mins
TAKING ROOT tells the story of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya and its founder Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist and first African woman to win the Nobel Peace...
The Legacy of the Oka Trappists
Canada / 2008 / Ninon Larochelle / 52 mins
Director Larochelle takes us into the heart of the world famous Trappists monastery in Oka. After a 125 year legacy the monks are finally leaving. At its peak, the abbey...
The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
USA / 2008 / Adam Pertofsky / 30 mins
On April 4,1968, the Revered Samuel “Billy” Kyles stood beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee and bore witness...
Tongzhi in Love
China/USA / 2008 / Ruby Yang(Director)/Thomas Lennon (Producer) / 30 mins
“Frog” Cui and his friends navigate the dilemmas of being gay in modern China, torn between the lures of big city life and the stern demands of Chinese tradition. They...
What are we doing here?
U.S.A. / 2008 / Brandon, Nicholas, Daniel & Tim Klein / 83 mins
WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? explores why the charity given to Africa over the last five decades has been largely ineffective and often harmful. The film tells the story of...
Whatever happened to Brenda Hean?
Australia / 2008 / Scott Millwood / 90 mins
This feature documentary explores the remarkable story of Brenda Hean – one of the first leaders of an environmental political party in the world – whose fight to save...
Americano
Canada & Peru / 2007 / Carlos Ferrand / 99 mins
Ferrand returns to his birth country and journeys through the back alleys of the Americas. Travelling from Patagonia to Nunavut, he revisits some of the men and women...
Constantine's Sword
USA / 2007 / Oren Jacoby / 95 & 60 mins
The theme of US President-Elect, Barack Obama’s election night speech was tolerance. His message to the world was that America is more than a vicious rivalry between blue...
Match & Marry
USA / 2007 / Suzannah Warlick / 48 mins
"Match & Marry" offers a fun look at the ancient tradition of matchmaking. Many of us will recall the generational clash that took place in the musical, Fiddler on the...
Praying With Lior
USA / 2007 / Ilana Trachtman / 87 & 58 mins
An engrossing, wrenching and tender documentary film, PRAYING WITH LIOR introduces Lior Liebling, also called "the little rebbe." Lior has Down syndrome, and has spent...
The Slanted Screen: The History of Asian Men in Hollywood
USA / 2007 / Jeff Adachi / 55 mins
From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, The Slanted Screen examines Hollywood’s portrayals of Asian men in film and television. The...
Water Discourses
Canada & Mexico / 2007 / Saël Gueydan-Lacroix & Frédéric Julien / 33 mins
According to a report by the UN in 2006, more than 1 billion people worldwide lack potable drinking water. The seriousness of this issue in Mexico sparked the active participation...
With and Without You
Canada / 2007 / Maryse Chartrand / 90 and 60 mins
Stopping everything to get out of the rat race is what the Beaudry family did. Maryse, Samuel and their three kids left their comfortable middle class North American...
Abel Raises Cain
USA / 2005 ( feature length ) & 2007 ( TV length ) / Jenny Abel & Jeff Hockett / 82 & 57:35 mins
Can you believe everything that you read and hear in the news? Meet Alan Abel - a professional hoaxer and prankster. He's been fooling the American media for decades....
Julia's Story
China / 2005 / Ruby Yang / 28 mins
In a culture still bound by tradition, it struggles to shake off the taboos of sexuality and the stigma of AIDS. It is against this backdrop that “Julia’s Story” profiles...
An Unreasonable Man
USA / Henriette Mantel & Steve Skrovan / 122 or 2x 60 mins
In 2009 Senator Barack Obama was sworn in as the first African American President of the United States, signifying a watershed moment in American political history. This...
Mardi Gras: Made in China
USA / David Redmon / 72 & 48 mins
This multi award - winning hot favourite of the film festival circuit and Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee follows the "bead trail" from the factory in China to Bourbon...
Silma's School
Australia / Jane Jeffes / 55 & 83 mins
"A prestigious film, Silma's School is a classic verite work. Through telling the story of a community-based private school that helps carry on the traditions of Islam...
Song of the Hunted
New Zealand / Peter Haynes / 90 mins mins
Song of the Hunted is set in a fanatsy world, although one not far removed from our own. The story begins in the late medieval city of Crallas, where the king's only son...
Vida Nocturna
USA / To be released in 2010 / Dean Cundey / 90 mins mins
Set in the city of Seville a 4,000 year old curse based on the Spanish Black Legend is re-awakened when an American student, trying to scrape enough money together for...
Assume Nothing
NZ / 2009 / Kirsty MacDonald / 82 mins - enquire about other lengths mins
Many of us assume that there are only two genders and that being female or male follows from the sex of our biological bodies. Focusing on the art, photography and performances...
Chance of a Lifetime
New Zealand / 2008 / Sandy Crichton / 49 mins
This award-winning tale tells the extraordinary story of how a population of wild New Zealand falcons managed to survive in the face of fierce commercial forestry logging...
Intimidad
US / 2008 / David Redmon & Ashley Sabin / 53 and 72 mins
Cecy and Camilo are a young couple struggling to make ends meet. They leave their modest hometown of Santa Maria, Puebla, east of Mexico City and their baby daughter Loida...
Aki Ra's Boys
Singapore/Cambodia / 2007 / James Leong & Lynn Lee / 57 mins
Boreak was six when he lost his right arm in a landmine accident. Family members rushed the young Cambodian to a nearby hospital where so-called "doctors" performed a...
Freeheld ( 2008 Academy Award Winner )
USA / 2007 / Cynthia Wade / 38 mins
Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester spent 25 years investigating tough cases in Ocean County, New Jersey, protecting the rights of victims and putting her life on the line...
In Our Name
Australia / 2007 / Christopher Tuckfield / 57 mins
Using the Abu Ghraib scandal as a point of reference, In Our Name is a timely discussion on the lengths that post 9/11 democracies will go to in order to stave off real...
Just Punishment
Australia / 2007 / Kim Beamish & Shannon Owen / 54 mins
On December 22nd, 2002, a young Australian man is on his way home from Asia having taken his first overseas trip. Hours later, he is caught at Changi Airport with 396...
Kamp Katrina
USA / 2007 / David Redmon & Ashley Sabin / 50 and 74 mins
"Kamp Katrina captures an exceptionally pathos-rich tale. The personal dramas and tense struggles of the residents are moving, but the hostility they face from the...
LUMO
Democratic Republic of Congo / USA / 2007 / Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt, Nelson Walker III, Louis Abelman (co-director), Lynn True (co-director) / 52 or 72 mins
Recently engaged to a young man from her village, 20 year-old Lumo Sinai couldn’t wait to have children and start a family. But when she crossed paths with marauding soldiers...
Never Perfect
USA / 2007 / Regina Park / 63 and 55 mins
In 2006, there were 11 million cosmetic surgeries performed in the United States which constituted an $11.4 billion industry. Director Regina Park explores the motivation...
Terra Incognita
USA / 2007 / Maria Finitzo / 83 & 58:48 mins
Terra Incognita puts a human face on the stem cell debate by following the work of Dr. Jack Kessler as he searches for a cure to spinal cord injuries, and the breakthrough...
The Alpha-Diaries
Israel / 2007 / Yaniv Berman / 65 mins
An unprecedented, groundbreaking and voyeuristic look into military reserve life in Israel, this film was shot over a 5 year period in director and reserve soldier Yaniv...
Black and White
New Zealand / 2006 / Kirsty MacDonald / 17 mins
Black and White focuses on the profoundly moving story of Mani Bruce Mitchell. In the initial pandemonium following her birth, Mani was assigned the gender “male...
Braindamadj'd ... Take II
Canada / 2006 / Paul Nadler / 42 & 50 mins
Ten years ago, Montrealer Paul Nadler at 30 was a creative maverick – snowboarding, rock-climbing and scuba diving, taking part in all-night play-writing sessions, attracting...
Hand of God
USA / 2006 / Joe Cultrera / 94 ( enquire about tv length ) mins
A decade before the Catholic Church was rocked by the sexual abuse scandal, Paul Cultrera was piecing together the cover-up that protected the priest who molested him...
Longfin
New Zealand / 2006 / Lindsey Davidson and Melissa Salpietra / 24 mins
Longfin is an outstanding and original piece of work by emerging filmmakers Lindsey Davidson and Melissa Salpietra. By taking one of aquatic life’s most maligned...
Made In Taiwan: Nathan and Oscar's Excellent Adventure
New Zealand / 2006 / Dan Salmon / 45 mins
A simple DNA test which involves a swab in the mouth can reveal where your ancestors came from 30,000 years ago. In Made in Taiwan, molecular biology leaves the classroom...
Make It Real (To Me)
Australia / 2006 / Miles Roston / 54 mins
When Kevin Sumba's mother died of AIDS, he was left alone to fend for himself from the age of 10 in Kisumu, Kenya. Determined to get an education, he snuck into school...
Promised Paradise
The Netherlands / Indonesia / 2006 / Leonard Retel Helmrich / 52 mins
The Jakarta-based Indonesian puppeteer and troubadour Agus Nur Amal travels to Bali to call to account the people who were responsible for the bomb attack on a nightclub...
So Far Yet So Close
New Zealand / 2006 / Sophie Zhang / 25 mins
In 2005, Maori singer/songwriter Leon Wharekura accepts an invitation to join a special school for blind children in Tianjin, China as a visiting teacher. The invitation...
Taking the Heat
USA / 2006 / Bann Roy / 53 mins and 60 mins
“Taking the Heat is a rare, honest, life-changing documentary about the hurt and honor of being a lifetime pioneer. Brenda Berkman worked where she was hated so that...
The Blood of Yingzhou District ( 2007 Academy Award Winner )
China/US / 2006 / Ruby Yang(Director)/Thomas Lennon (Producer) / 39 please enquire about other formats available mins
Gao Jun is the toddler who appears in the Oscar winning Blood of Yingzhou District. Director Ruby Yang followed Gao Jun for a period of a year in this groundbreaking documentary...
Turning the Tide
New Zealand / 2006 / Catherine Madigan / 47 mins
Mary Taylor is a woman with a purpose. Having developed a love affair with Sri Lanka as a result of previous travels, she is devastated to learn of the tsunami that has...
Pacific Solution
NZ / 2005 / James Frankham / 50 mins
On the day the World Trade Center crumbled, the lives of 438 Afghan refugees were hanging in the balance off the coast of Australia, fleeing the persecution of the Taliban...
ZAKA - Living with Death
Israel / 2004 / Noam Shalev / 47 mins
What happens in the aftermath of a suicide bombing? What happens to the bodies of the victims? In this tour de force, director Noam Shalev enters the sanctity of a humanitarian...
Shooting Conflicts
Israel / 2003 / Noam Shalev / 50 mins
For years they have witnessed every major event from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; filming terrorist attacks, military occupation, suicide bombings,...
Tanim: A Tribal Struggle for Power
New Zealand / 2002 / James Frankham / 50 mins
"The heat from the fire scorches my face and rises in the house, flames pooling and swirling orange on the roof. Three men in ass-grass are dancing in my viewfinder...
Primetime War
Israel / 1998 / Noam Shalev / 50 mins
A 50-minute documentary, dealing with the role of the media in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Primetime War follows the story of two cameramen - Jimmy Michael, a Palestinian...
Hotu Painu or "Poison Fruit"
NZ / 1996 / Pita Turei / 60 mins
The shocking events in this recently discovered documentary which had its Southern Hemisphere premiere at DOCNZ 2005 following its world premiere at IDFA in 1996 remain...