win 10 DVDs from the Docurama Film Festival I (now closed)

DVD company Docurama is inviting film lovers to enjoy festival-quality documentary films at home with its 10-DVD Platinum Pack Docurama Film Festival I, which was released on June 27. To celebrate, I've got a Platinum Pack to give away (stuffed into a Docurama messenger bag), courtesy of Docurama. Here's the scoop on the DVD festival, from Docurama:

There are over 500 successful film festivals that take place in the U.S. each year, and if you’ve ever been to one you’ll know why. In the era of Hollywood blockbusters and 16-screen megaplexes, film festivals provide the opportunity to see films you’ll never get the chance to see anywhere else. There’s also a unique energy and “buzz” around the films at a festival, and yet so often, this enthusiasm dies when the festival closes its doors, and scores of amazing, ground-breaking films disappear, never to be seen again. Until now. On June 27, Docurama™, the pioneering distributor of documentaries on DVD, proudly unveils an industry-first event: The DOCURAMA FILM FESTIVAL I.

Created to introduce home audiences to the complete festival experience – from the buzz-worthy, ground-breaking films to the behind-the-scenes “interactivity” -- the DOCURAMA FILM FESTIVAL I offers the opportunity to experience films on an entirely new level. Because not everyone can get to a film festival, Docurama delivers one direct to living rooms across the county; featuring a selection of 10 award-winning films and a dedicated website, viewers will be able to interact with the festival DVDs like never before!

Visit the official festival site.

The ten films in the festival are:

• Aging Out: With the critically-acclaimed AGING OUT, Academy Award®-nominee Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth chronicle the daunting obstacles that three young people in foster care encounter as they "age out" of the system and are suddenly left to fend for themselves.

• Broken Rainbow: Narrated by Martin Sheen, this exquisitely shot and scored Academy Award® winner illustrates the heartbreaking tale of 12,000 Navajos forced to leave their ancestral homeland in order to make way for energy exploration.

• Doing Time: Life in the Big House: In this Academy Award®-nominated film, groundbreaking verité filmmakers Alan & Susan Raymond delve deep inside the harrowing and violent Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary—a place where rehabilitation and parole have all but been abandoned.

• Full Frame 4: The Full Frame Documentary Shorts Collection: Volume 4 presents a fascinating new collection of the best short docs from the preeminent documentary film festival in North America.

• Legacy: This riveting Academy Award®-nominated film tells the inspirational story of one exceptional family who triumph against the odds to ascend from the grips of extreme poverty.

• Sister Rose’s Passion: A feisty nun takes on anti-Semitism and Mel Gibson in this Academy Award®-nominated film that chronicles a Dominican Sister's lifelong quest to reform the Roman Catholic Church's centuries-old position on Jesus and the Jews.

• The Fire Next Time: This emotionally charged film follows a deeply divided Montana town as they are caught up in a web of conflicts intensified by environmental issues, rapid growth and the power of radio.

• Omar & Pete: From Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Tod Lending comes this gritty and honest portrait of two long-term offenders and the challenges they face living life on the outside after spending much of their lives in prison.

• The Police Tapes: In the spirit of seminal 1970s films like Mean Streets and Serpico, Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond ride shotgun with police to document a city in chaos—resulting in a real-life time capsule of cops struggling to keep a community from unraveling amidst an overwhelming tide of crime.

• The Wobblies: This provocative and dramatic film classic by award-winning filmmakers Deborah Schaffer and Stewart Bird illuminates the turbulent history of the largest radical union in US history.

I will be reviewing each of the ten films over the course of the summer autumn -- and giving away individual copies of each film at the same time. But this is your chance to win the whole 10-DVD festival, which retails for more than $200 on Amazon, in one go.

To enter to win the Platinum Pack and messenger bag, send a funny sentence or short paragraph that uses all ten titles of the films:

Aging Out
Broken Rainbow
Doing Time
The Fire Next Time
Full Frame
Legacy
Omar & Pete
The Police Tapes
Sister Rose’s Passion
The Wobblies

Cynthia's winning entry: "....if you %$@##@@ don't put out the fire next time, I'll have your !#%^&&s in a sling!" Omar and Pete listened to the police tapes. Once again, they had failed to please their new chief. They were aging out, had the wobblies and doing time until retirement when they could take in the pleasures of Sister Rose's Passion. Omar stood up, so his full frame towered over his partner. "Our legacy should have been a pot of gold, Pete. But all we got us is a broken rainbow."

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