The Vancouver International Film Festival is now in gear, and with its more than 350 films, there’s something for everybody. Where else can you see an example of the “gay zombie porn genre,” (LA Zombie) or a French flick about the “plangent adventures of a rather vengeful telekinetic tire” (Rubber) in one venue? Not that you’d necessarily want to, but like Mount Everest, it’s nice to know VIFF is out there, and you have the option to scale it from any approach. If you’re planning to schedule a two-week route to the summit, with the official film guide as your sherpa, good luck. Here’s a few of my top documentary choices from advance screenings, listed from great to good:

Cities on Speed—Bogotá Change—In 1994, a rector at a Colombian university performs a lewd act in front of a jeering crowd, kickstarting a cascade of social consequences for “one of the most dangerous cities in the world,” transforming it beyond recognition. Alternately hilarious, moving and troubling, this doc demonstrates how one committed person (or two, in this case) can make an immense difference on the civic scale and beyond.

The Red Chapel—A scheming Danish director pitches a goodwill performance to North Korea, and somehow gets an invite from DPRK apparatchiks. He arrives with two Danish-Korean “comedians,” one of them with cerebral palsy, with the intention of showcasing an unfunny slapstick routine for state officials. But the plan to punk the regime goes sideways when the disabled performer objects to the director’s efforts to use him to expose Kim Jong Il’s nightmare version of socialism.

The 4th Revolution-Energy Autonomy—All around the world, solar contractors, producers and consumers are making alliances, doing an end run around King Cong (Coal, Oil, Nuclear, Gas). In his visually compelling film, globetrotting director Carl A. Fechner visits Denmark, Germany, Brazil and Bangladesh, tracking a building energy autonomy revolution. The brilliant German parliamentarian Herman Scheer provides side commentary.

When the Devil Knocks—A low-budget film examining the mystery of dissassociative identity disorder, and the shadow cast across one Canadian woman’s life by monstrous sexual abuse in her childhood, that literally broke her into pieces. A decade of footage tells together the story of her healing, as a therapist attempts to merge the fragmented personalities, or “alters,” into a unified personality.

Himalaya, A Path to the Sky—Not a lot happens in this documentary, but that’s part of its otherworldly, off-the-grid charm. In an ancient, ramshackle Buddhist monastery on the cliffs of Pukthal, India, child monks live work and pray among their older mentors. Director Marianne Chaud focuses on one monk in particular, the puckish, eight year-old Kenrap, who is “different” from the other child monks, according to his teachers. “Where else can you pray and philosophize whenever you want?” Kenrap says of the home in the clouds.

Into Eternity—This glacially paced, austere doc is in keeping with the topic of nuclear waste storage in Finland, and a radioactive legacy that keeps on giving. It will take the Finns more than 100 years to complete their immense Onkalo storage facility, in which the waste must sit undisturbed for 100,000 years. Various industry officials, academics and government bureaucrats shift uncomfortably in their chairs as they speculate on the unknowable intentions of a future race, which may ignore or misunderstand posted warnings from a long-gone civilization. Given all their contortions in justifying Onkalo, these head-scratching Finns might as well be wearing Spandex. But at least they’re spending more time thinking about the downside of nuclear energy than anyone else.

Kinshasa Symphony—Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is one of the most chaotic, poverty-stricken cities in the world. Yet the city dwellers succeeded in assembling an orchestra for a stirring performance of Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony.” Some instruments, including cellos, were made from scratch in the streets. The symphonic achievement is even more astonishing given the context the film failed to convey: since 1998, the wars in the Congo and their aftermath have resulted in the deaths of 5.4 million people.

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