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If women have struggled to regularly breakthrough with the big narrative films that dominate the box office and turn directors into stars, the low-budget/small-crew environment of documentary filmmaking is one area where female directors have excelled. One of the most promising documentarians of the past decade, having been nominated for an Oscar the past two years, is British filmmaker Lucy Walker.

After some work in television, Walker made her entrance on the scene in 2002 with the documentary Devil’s Playground, a gritty and fascinating look at the Amish practice of rumspringa, where teenagers are given a chance to live outside the strict Amish rules in order to decide whether to commit themselves to the community. Equal parts shocking and predictable, the reaction to freedom from these strict constraints can be quite extreme.

Her second effort, 2006′s Blindsight, examines the work of the organization Braille Without Borders mentoring blind teenagers in Tibet.

There is that classic saying that goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” For famed artist Vik Muniz, it’s “One man’s trash is another man’s art.” World renowned and applauded for his art, Muniz has spent the past couple of decades creating mesmerizing works of art by only using various pieces of trash and garbage as his tools. Director Lucy Walker, along with co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley, followed Muniz for three years as he created his most ambitious work of art to date and what resulted was the Academy Award-nominated documentary, Waste Land. You can read my review after the jump. Opening with the immediately charming Muniz while he has a smile on his face as he explains how he became an artist all thanks to being shot, Waste Land starts on an upbeat note as we get to know Muniz and...

A Family directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen which was in the Competition section won the Fipresci (the international film critics association) prize for Best Film in the 60th edition of the Berlinale.

According to Ians reports, after receiving the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) award Friday, the 27-year-old debutante director dedicated it "to the whole community of La Barra", a village on Colombia's northern coast where the filming took place. From the Panorama, the Fipresci award was given to Parade by Isao Yukisada and Crab Trap directed by Oscar Ruíz Navia from the Forum won this prize.

Generation K Plus awards were also announced on Saturday. Crystal Bear for the Best Film went to Shui Yuet Sun Tau (Hongkong / China)  by Alex Law while This Way Of Life(New Zealand / Canada) by Thomas Burstyn won a special mention from the Jury.

Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film went...