Comrades in Dreams (2006)

A handful of people separated by temperament, politics and geography are linked by a common dream of sharing their love for movies with the world in this documentary. Anup Jagdale is a movie buff in the Indian village of Shingnapur who has found a way to turn his hobby into a career by showing the latest Bollywood hits to eager audiences in an old circus tent. In the small town of Big Piney, Wyoming, Penny Tefertiller is a longtime community activist who also runs the Flick Theater, a converted barn where she brings entertainment to everyone from bored teenagers to lonely elders. North Korean Han Yong-sil wants to show movies that will deliver positive messages for women and working people, as well as providing a respite from the monotonal propaganda that dominates the North Korean media. And Lassane Badiel, Lamoussa Luc Kabore and Zakaria Gnegnie are film fans and entrepreneurs from Burkina Faso who take over a shuttered open-air theater to bring the movies to their West African village. While the common problems of booking the right movies and getting paying customers to show up are experienced everywhere, filmmaker Uli Gaulke demonstrates how the love of good movies fuels these six people and helps keep their dreams alive. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi