In the documentary section of the this year's World Cinema competition, the choices being offered at Sundance are rich and varied — ranging from "On a Tightrope," which explores the little-known and very remote area in northwestern China where 8 million Muslims known as Uighurs live, to "Comrades in Dreams," in which a German filmmaker sets out to look at small independent cinemas on four continents, including India, Korea and even an "open-air" cinema in the world's poorest country, Burkina Faso.

World Cinema Documentary Competition

— "Acidente" shows us the diversity among 20 cities in Brazil.

— "Manufactured Landscapes" provides jaw-dropping shots of industrial landscapes throughout Asia, providing a striking visual comment on humanity's relationship to nature.

— "VHS-Kahloucha" deals with an amateur filmmaker from Tunisia who is filming "Tarzan of the Arabs."

— "Welcome Europa" has a French film director looking at several young Kurdish, Moroccan, and Romanian immigrants who have come to Europe looking for work and a better life.

— "Enemies of Happiness" focuses on a female freedom-fighter in war-torn Afghanistan.

— "Hot House" concerns the 10,000 Palestinians incarcerated in Israel's prisons and how these very prisons have become a hotbed for fomenting terrorist plots.

— "Crossing the Line" deals with an American defector who, during the Cold War, crossed over into North Korea and has remained there for the past 40 years.

— "Bajo Juarez, the City Devouring Its Daughters" looks at the shocking number of unsolved crimes against women in Mexico's border towns

— "Cocalero" examines the problems of the natives of Bolivia who make their living cultivating coca crops.

— "In the Shadow of the Moon," from England, has 12 men who have stood on a planet other than our own recount their experiences, accompanied by astonishing space shots, some of which have never been shown before.

— "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten," from well-known British filmmaker Julien Temple, provides insight into the man at the heart of the seminal punk band the Clash.

— "A Very British Gangster" takes us into the lives of one of Britain's most dangerous crime families.

— "The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun" features an 82-year-old man living in a dilapidated castle in Denmark's countryside, and the headstrong Russian Orthodox nun who clashes with him when he considers turning the castle into a monastery.

---

E-mail: marshalldj@iveracity.com