The Beatles, China star at Silverdocs film fest

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - A film about The Beatles' collaboration with Cirque du Soleil will kick off this year's Silverdocs documentary festival which features a greater number of movies about China.

Organizers of the festival, sponsored by the Discovery Channel and American Film Institute, said they chose from about 2,000 films for the 108 selections at the June 16-23 festival.

Held in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, the festival is in its sixth year and has become one of the industry's leading documentary showcases, this year including six world premieres.

"There's a lot of films that celebrate life, and yet they're really thoughtful," said Silverdocs director Patricia Finneran.

The festival will include discussions by filmmakers and newsmakers, including director Spike Lee and Nobel Peace Prize winner James Orbinski of medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres).

It will also have performances by musicians including Bela Fleck, whose African quest for the roots of the banjo is the subject of a featured documentary.

"All Together Now" opens the festival. It looks behind the scenes at Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and George Harrison's widow Olivia working with Cirque du Soleil to produce "LOVE," the Las Vegas review of The Beatles music.

Silverdocs has several films invoking the spirit of social turbulence of the late 1960s including "Gonzo," about drug-using journalist Hunter S. Thompson, and all 12 hours of "An American Family," a TV series seen as a forerunner of reality TV.