BritDoc, the Oxford-based documentary festival now hosting its third-annual event, has announced this year's competition films.

The British Competition will include:

  • Blood Trail - dir. Richard Parry
    A young war photographer ventures to Sarajevo in 1993 and tries to make a name for himself.
  • Chosen - dir. Brian Woods
    Middle class men reflect on their sexual abuse in British schools 30 years ago.
  • Day After Peace - dir. Jeremy Gilley
    Trying to silence the cynics to prove that the new UN-sanctified Peace Day can save lives.
  • Heavy Load - dir. Jerry Rothwell
    A film-maker meets a unique band with learning difficulties.
  • Life After the Fall - dir. Kasim Abid
    An exile returns to modern-day Iraq.
  • Man on Wire - dir. James Marsh
    Philippe Petit reflects on his infamous 1974 highwire walk between New York's Twin Towers.
  • Starstruck aka Son of Eurovision - dir. Jamie J Johnson
    Follows the 2007 Junior Eurovision contestants.
  • The End - dir. Nicola Collins
    A daughter's look at her father and his gangster friends growing up in London's East End.
  • Thriller in Manilla - dir. John Dower
    About Joe Frazier's 1975 fight with Muhammed Ali in Manila.
  • Young@Heart - dir. Stephen Walker
    About a choir of senior citizens.

This year's international selections are, instead of an international competition, a Best Of Fests section from Sundance, IDFA, Berlin, Toronto and SXSW.

Those selections are:

  • Trouble the Water - dir. Tia Lessin & Carl Deal (Sundance)
    New Orleans residents try to survive Hurricane Katrina.
  • Up the Yangtze - dir. Yung Chang (IDFA)
    About modernisation with the Three Gorges Dam project.
  • Heavy Metal in Baghdad - dir. Eddy Moretti & Suroosh Alvi (Berlinale)
    A young band beats the odds in Iraq.
  • Obscene - dirs. Daniel O'Connor and Neil Orgenberg (Toronto)
    About anti-censorship crusader Barney Rosset.
  • At the Death House Door - dirs. Steve James and Peter Gilbert (SXSW)
    About death row minister Carroll Pickett.

The Fourdocs British Short Doc Competition includes:

  • The Solitary Life Of Cranes - dir: Eva Weber
  • My Name Is Karl - dir: Moritz Siebert
  • Made in Queens - dir: Nicolas Randall
  • Valley of the Goats - dir: Leon Dean
  • Sanctuary - dir. Lovejit K. Dhaliwal

This year's festival has themes of Comedy - with The Yes Men screening a work-in-progress - and Music, with The Shine Synchro System providing a live soundtrack to Robert Flaherty's classic Nanook Of The North.

Britdoc runs July 23-25. For more information visit www.britdoc.org.uk.

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